15 ms·

Computational sociology

97 points by eekthecat 9y ago

programLyrique 9y ago
The "impact on society" paragrapg is quite short. Has any work of computational sociology inspired a real policy? Could it replace economy as the main driver of politics and policies?
- jboynyc 9y ago
  Depending on how you classify him (as an economist or a sociologist), Thomas Schelling's work on residential segregation has likely informed policy over the last decades. Recently a nice animation of his dynamic models of segregation processes was posted here: http://ncase.me/polygons/ http://ncase.me/polygons/
- shrimp_emoji 9y ago
  Was the CS department at Evergreen College involved in the protest?
- neuromantik8086 9y ago
  I mean, the field has inspired how Facebook determines to serve up news feed content so, in a way, it has driven policy by way of influencing democracy.
- jk4930 9y ago
  Re policy, it's used e.g. in environmental resource management (regional level), anti-terrorism (networks, opinion dynamics), urban planning, disease control. Policy isn't based alone on it, of course. But it's used as an ingredient. Often the models aren't good enough (lack of data and quantifiable causal relationships) to gain an exact image of the modeled system, but they provide a general system understanding (system behavior under different [intervention] scenarios) that is often educational and gives insights that then need to be empirically validated. A barrier to increase its use in policy-making is the "science-policy gap" between researchers and decision-makers. Either they don't understand the utility of model results and dismiss them or they trust them too much--both is not good. So researchers had to come up with ways to communicate results, often include decision-makers (and other stakeholders) in the modeling process.
eduren 9y ago
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) Snark aside, I'm definitely interested in whether or not this field will have impacts on future policy. In order to be useful I feel it would have to actively avoid simplifying assumptions that have trapped similar fields.
- creaghpatr 9y ago
  Regarding academic study, sociology is so partisan you need not worry about them using computer science and/or logic to uncover hidden truths in the near future. In the private sector however, companies such as Premise and Palantir are already eons ahead of academia, but their insights and data are proprietary.
  - randomm 9y ago
    "sociology is so partisan you need not worry about them using computer science" This is clearly BS. Sociology has been using computer simulations at least since the 1970s. "and/or logic to uncover hidden truths" Since when do you use logic to uncover 'truths'? With logic you can only operate in a given world of discourse to make meaningful inferences. "Premise and Palantir are already eons ahead of academia" Ahead in which sense?
- neuromantik8086 9y ago
  See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliodynamics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliodynamics The non-fictional equivalent.
rollinDyno 9y ago
How can I get into this field? I'm a senior CS student.
- jboynyc 9y ago
  If it's repeated in coming years, you should go to this summer school: https://www.russellsage.org/summer-institute-computational-social-science-june-18-july-1-2017 https://www.russellsage.org/summer-institute-computational-s...
- jk4930 9y ago
  Since you're in the UK, look at [1] and perhaps check topics that interest you and follow the names at [2]. Then we have the European Social Simulation Association [3] with Summer Schools and annual conferences. [1] http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/web/home http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/web/home [2] http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS.html http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS.html [3] http://www.essa.eu.org/ http://www.essa.eu.org/
tchalla 9y ago
There's another field closely related to Computational Sociology called "Computational Social Science" - an area/community which I was a part of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_social_science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_social_science There are many universities like Stanford, Cornell and Columbia which have dedicated working groups for Computational Social Science. https://iriss.stanford.edu/css https://iriss.stanford.edu/css http://as.cornell.edu/block/computational-social-sciences http://as.cornell.edu/block/computational-social-sciences http://datascience.columbia.edu/computational-social-science http://datascience.columbia.edu/computational-social-science
- pathdependent 9y ago
  This is my field, too. I am a Ph.D. candidate in computational social science, working on a computational model of social belief systems. I'm quite happy to see this on HN. Like many other disciplines, our field is blossoming with the rise of cheap, high performance computing! If your involved in this field and on HN, please reach out to me at @generativist on twitter. I'm in the process of setting up a community for CSS work, and will be soliciting feedback soon!
  - harlanji 9y ago
    Can you talk about what software packages, perhaps data structures and algorithms you use? Any shortcomings / low hanging fruit? I see the domain as an invaluable tool for a few applications... any particularly strong ones you can see?
    - neuromantik8086 9y ago
      Wrt to algorithms / techniques used, you might want to check out this textbook by some of the Cornell folks: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/ http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/ They also made an EdX course for it: https://www.edx.org/course/networks-crowds-markets-cornellx-info2040x-2 https://www.edx.org/course/networks-crowds-markets-cornellx-...
mazr 9y ago
Come say Hi in Berlin if you're interested in this field ! http://cmb.huma-num.fr/ http://cmb.huma-num.fr/
pavement 9y ago
Pretty interesting tangent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocybernetics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocybernetics
EddieSpeaks 9y ago
Great, soon we'll have robots demanding gender fluidity rights
- sctb 9y ago
  We've banned this account for posting mostly uncivil, unsubstantive comments. If you'd like your account to be unbanned, you can email hn@ycombinator.com and commit to commenting within the guidelines.

97 points by eekthecat 9y ago

The "impact on society" paragrapg is quite short. Has any work of computational sociology inspired a real policy? Could it replace economy as the main driver of politics and policies?

jboynyc 9y ago
Depending on how you classify him (as an economist or a sociologist), Thomas Schelling's work on residential segregation has likely informed policy over the last decades. Recently a nice animation of his dynamic models of segregation processes was posted here: http://ncase.me/polygons/ http://ncase.me/polygons/
shrimp_emoji 9y ago
Was the CS department at Evergreen College involved in the protest?
neuromantik8086 9y ago
I mean, the field has inspired how Facebook determines to serve up news feed content so, in a way, it has driven policy by way of influencing democracy.
jk4930 9y ago
Re policy, it's used e.g. in environmental resource management (regional level), anti-terrorism (networks, opinion dynamics), urban planning, disease control. Policy isn't based alone on it, of course. But it's used as an ingredient. Often the models aren't good enough (lack of data and quantifiable causal relationships) to gain an exact image of the modeled system, but they provide a general system understanding (system behavior under different [intervention] scenarios) that is often educational and gives insights that then need to be empirically validated. A barrier to increase its use in policy-making is the "science-policy gap" between researchers and decision-makers. Either they don't understand the utility of model results and dismiss them or they trust them too much--both is not good. So researchers had to come up with ways to communicate results, often include decision-makers (and other stakeholders) in the modeling process.

eduren 9y ago

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) Snark aside, I'm definitely interested in whether or not this field will have impacts on future policy. In order to be useful I feel it would have to actively avoid simplifying assumptions that have trapped similar fields.

creaghpatr 9y ago
Regarding academic study, sociology is so partisan you need not worry about them using computer science and/or logic to uncover hidden truths in the near future. In the private sector however, companies such as Premise and Palantir are already eons ahead of academia, but their insights and data are proprietary.
- randomm 9y ago
  "sociology is so partisan you need not worry about them using computer science" This is clearly BS. Sociology has been using computer simulations at least since the 1970s. "and/or logic to uncover hidden truths" Since when do you use logic to uncover 'truths'? With logic you can only operate in a given world of discourse to make meaningful inferences. "Premise and Palantir are already eons ahead of academia" Ahead in which sense?
neuromantik8086 9y ago
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliodynamics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliodynamics The non-fictional equivalent.

rollinDyno 9y ago

How can I get into this field? I'm a senior CS student.

jboynyc 9y ago
If it's repeated in coming years, you should go to this summer school: https://www.russellsage.org/summer-institute-computational-social-science-june-18-july-1-2017 https://www.russellsage.org/summer-institute-computational-s...
jk4930 9y ago
Since you're in the UK, look at [1] and perhaps check topics that interest you and follow the names at [2]. Then we have the European Social Simulation Association [3] with Summer Schools and annual conferences. [1] http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/web/home http://cress.soc.surrey.ac.uk/web/home [2] http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS.html http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS.html [3] http://www.essa.eu.org/ http://www.essa.eu.org/

tchalla 9y ago

There's another field closely related to Computational Sociology called "Computational Social Science" - an area/community which I was a part of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_social_science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_social_science There are many universities like Stanford, Cornell and Columbia which have dedicated working groups for Computational Social Science. https://iriss.stanford.edu/css https://iriss.stanford.edu/css http://as.cornell.edu/block/computational-social-sciences http://as.cornell.edu/block/computational-social-sciences http://datascience.columbia.edu/computational-social-science http://datascience.columbia.edu/computational-social-science

pathdependent 9y ago
This is my field, too. I am a Ph.D. candidate in computational social science, working on a computational model of social belief systems. I'm quite happy to see this on HN. Like many other disciplines, our field is blossoming with the rise of cheap, high performance computing! If your involved in this field and on HN, please reach out to me at @generativist on twitter. I'm in the process of setting up a community for CSS work, and will be soliciting feedback soon!
- harlanji 9y ago
  Can you talk about what software packages, perhaps data structures and algorithms you use? Any shortcomings / low hanging fruit? I see the domain as an invaluable tool for a few applications... any particularly strong ones you can see?
  - neuromantik8086 9y ago
    Wrt to algorithms / techniques used, you might want to check out this textbook by some of the Cornell folks: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/ http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/ They also made an EdX course for it: https://www.edx.org/course/networks-crowds-markets-cornellx-info2040x-2 https://www.edx.org/course/networks-crowds-markets-cornellx-...

mazr 9y ago

Come say Hi in Berlin if you're interested in this field ! http://cmb.huma-num.fr/ http://cmb.huma-num.fr/

pavement 9y ago

Pretty interesting tangent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocybernetics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocybernetics

EddieSpeaks 9y ago

Great, soon we'll have robots demanding gender fluidity rights

sctb 9y ago
We've banned this account for posting mostly uncivil, unsubstantive comments. If you'd like your account to be unbanned, you can email hn@ycombinator.com and commit to commenting within the guidelines.