Richard Staley

University of Cambridge, History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty Member

University of Copenhagen, Department of Science Education, Faculty Member

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Histories of Artificial Intelligence: A Genealogy of Power

BJHS Themes, Volume 8, 2023

Guest edited by Syed Mustafa Ali, Stephanie Dick, Sarah Dillon, Matthew L. Jones, Jonnie Penn and... more Guest edited by Syed Mustafa Ali, Stephanie Dick, Sarah Dillon, Matthew L. Jones, Jonnie Penn and Richard Staley

Editorial introduction and 14 contributions in four sections addressing:

Section 1: Origins? Intelligence, capture, discovery
Papers by Penn, Stark, Hamid

Section 2: Creativity, economy, and human–machine distinctiveness
Papers by Mendon-Plasek, Babintseva, Schirvar, Kirtchik

Section 3: Seeing through computer vision, historically
Papers by Lysen, Law, Taylor, Moreschi

Section 4: ‘The social implications of machine intelligence’ in the biometric state
Papers by Powell, Sahoo, and Hagerty, Aranda and Jemio

The Mantis Shrimp: A Simon Schaffer Festschrift

A Festschrift for Simon Schaffer, edited with Dániel Margócsy, 2022

Simon Schaffer's career has been lived, as have all of our careers, in the shadow of the concept ... more Simon Schaffer's career has been lived, as have all of our careers, in the shadow of the concept of scientific revolution-embracing both "the" Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century, armed with capitalisation and singular in all senses of the word, and "scientific revolutions," lowercase and plural, as the multiple structuring episodes which, according to Thomas Kuhn, run through all the histories of all the individual sciences. My inadequate little retirement gift to Simon is a small contribution to the critical reappraisal of that concept. Specifically, I shall interrogate a 1976 paper of I. Bernard Cohen's, which explored the use of the term "revolution" to designate permanent and progressive change, rather than its original meaning of cyclical return. 1 Cohen made two points about that remarkable shift of meaning. First, contrary to what some historians of science had been suggesting, the application of "revolution"-inthe-progressive-sense to refer to the scientific developments of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was neither anachronistic nor inappropriate-for that usage, far from being recent, had originated in 1709 with Fontenelle's characterization of the calculus, was applied in 1747 by Clairaut to Newton's physics, and had gained wide currency well before 1800 to designate the very developments that would later be termed "the Scientific Revolution. " 2 Second, the origin of that sense of "revolution" lay in the realm of politics: How Simon Schaffer launched my career JAN GOLINKSI Simon Schaffer launched my career. I suppose lots of people can say that, in a way. No doubt, there will be plenty of tributes in this collection to Simon's wise mentorship, his inspirational guidance of Ph.D. dissertations, his brilliant suggestions on drafts of papers, the lengthy and helpful bibliographies he apparently spins off the top of his head, and of course heady conversations over many pints of beer in The Eagle. But Simon did more than that for me; he created me and set me on my professional path. Look at the Acknowledgments in the first edition-the hard-cover one-of Leviathan and the Air-Pump, and there I am: "Jan Golinksi. " That generous tribute was the first time I appeared in print, but far from the last. In subsequent editions of the book, Simon scrupulously changed it, acknowledging a fellow called "Golinski" instead. But who is Golinski? Surely he didn't contribute anything to the famous book Simon wrote with Steven Shapin. Golinski disappeared into obscurity long ago. Rumor has it he lives in the woods of New Hampshire somewhere near the Canadian border. No-one has seen or heard from him for years. My career, on the other hand, has flourished, and it's all thanks to Simon. Just search for "Golinksi" on Google and you will find my name everywhere. There are hundreds of references to me in acknowledgments, reviews, footnotes, bibliographies, even in announcements for lectures and conferences. Sometimes, it's true, I have to share the glory with the aforementioned Golinski. Even within the same footnote or paragraph, an author will cite both of us, unsure where the credit really belongs. To take just one example: someone called David Wootton (I hope I've spelled that right), in a rather cantankerous book on the Scientific Revolution, takes me to task for a "muddle-headed view" about relativism, before shifting his target to Golinski in the very next paragraph. Talk about "muddle-headed!" I bet Golinski is grateful to me for taking the flak on that one. And I'm grateful to Simon. I would never have become this famous without him. Every year, my tally of citations grows, with books, articles, and conference presentations ascribed to me. It all started with that note in Leviathan and the Air-Pump. I not only owe my professional profile to Simon, I can honestly say I would not exist without him. "Inside Leviathan (for Simon Schaffer)," by The Unattached, 10m 34s.

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