The STEM Reckoning Will Arrive Shortly

So maybe, that's a little dramatic, but also.... is it?

We are in tumultuous times, something I don't need to tell you. I'm sure that even if you had previously been shielded (intentionally or unintentionally) from the political reality that has been unfolding slowly over the past decade, you have had to come to terms with the real effects of global and federal politics in your everyday life. It's unavoidable at this point.

The more nefarious thing, in my opinion, as a math educator, is the way that STEM has had a hand in the dissolution of a healthy media state, and has contributed to the effects of late stage capitalism and monopolization of power into the hands of a few.

I attended a lecture on complex data analysis this past Monday, and it was one of the most jarring experiences I have had to date. The presenter was lovely, a very sweet and soft spoken person, obviously a bit nervous about presenting their work in front of a seasoned math department (the university professors, not me, I was a guest who bugged my way into attending after sending an email proving I was part of the department and a professor kindly asking the department heads if I could attend). But as they spoke about their work, about how the math they were developing could be used and the utility of it, it began to give me a sinking feeling in my stomach. The presenter described how the tests that they ran were to increase user retention on websites and apps, they used Facebook as an example company, explaining how they tested retention on ads and websites that were promoted to users using what is called an A/B test. They explained that this data could then be used by the companies to do with it what they wanted, and to make choices that would benefit them as a company.

The biggest kicker was when they told us what these new ads/new websites were called when they were presented to users they were collecting data on. They are called "treatments", which is such a malicious word to use for what it both suggests and doesn't suggest about the reality of what the statisticians are doing to the users.

I always knew that people in maths and tech could be divorced from the reality of the harms that our work can have on the real world, I've encountered it before. But I had not encountered the language from someone who worked with companies on algorithm refinement and data testing.

To call it a treatment implies some kind of health care perspective, it implies a hopeful bettering of something. Perhaps it is about the bettering of the companies bottom line through the use of algorithm refinement, something that has helped addict people (myself included) to our devices and has helped radicalize many of this generation's youth into extremist harmful ideologies.

The talk ended, and the people around me asked questions, but only about the maths, nothing about the societal impacts that this work might lead to.

I recently read a paper describing how STEM has been used as a trojan horse for the CEO class. We teach maths and sciences as though they are the ultimate good, as though the work that is done is neutral and without any political, emotional, or religious/spiritual ramifications. Curriculum, not solely for STEM, has been developed in a way that contributes to making more workers. But I would argue none so much, at the moment, as the maths curriculum. In the words of a friend, it has been specifically developed to expand the proletariat (working class).

There is a complex cycle that I have observed, that I need to do more looking into, in self-aggrandizing from those who have bought into the idea that science, maths, and tech are superior crafts to the arts or humanities. They relish in the fact that society has structured itself in a way where the more maths and sciences you do, the more social capital you will be given without question. This feels almost schadenfreudian for some, a complete 180 from the way one was treated as a "nerd" in years previous. But, thanks to the marketing of the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and the media surrounding them over the past two decades, the narrative of what it is to be a nerd has changed. You saw that people that called themselves "nerds" could be wealthy and powerful individuals with cool wardrobes and martial arts training, no longer relegated to being stuffed in lockers and afraid of never encountering a romantic partner. There was no deeper analysis of the fact that they came from wealth, that some of these people did not have the experience they professed to have, and that much of their power came from ordering others around and taking the credit for the work of those doing actual labour.

STEM has had a detrimental effect on this world, specifically in its assistance in the increased crumbling of democracy through late stage capitalism. Yet it seems that it is easier than ever to disconnect from that reality, since that disconnect is what makes your electronic wallet get fatter.

There will be a time of reckoning for the STEM community, perhaps not now, maybe not even within my lifetime, but I do see others around me waking up and believe it has already begun. I believe that we will look back on the path that was paved by those who saw the beautiful concept of numbers and the work around it as transferable to their bank account and the bank accounts of those around them, and talk about it with shame and embarrassment.