#AcademicRunPlaylist - 5/30/25

I enjoyed my run to and from campus today, and on the way I listened to books and talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an incredible talk by Shannon Vallor on human dignity in the age of generative AI at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. This is a rousing evisceration of the AI hype machine's denigration of human ability, the flattening of inherently amorphous and changing concepts such as justice, and so much more. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBUcJTNQ0dk

Next was "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. This is like reading a book written by a wise grandparent - there's lots of knowledge and wisdom, occasional racist/classist statements, and long diatribes about since-refuted research. The system 1 and system 2 framing is extremely unconvincing since 1) as Kahneman notes, it doesn't actually exist and 2) a continuum model based on conscious cognitive effort is far more parsimonious. That being said, this is still an excellent grand tour of behavioral economics research. Highly recommend https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533557/thinkingfastandslow/

Next was "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Framed as a conversation between Coates and his son, this part autobiography, part history, part philosophical reflection on American history and the centrality of racism and Black oppression is a truly unique book. It's deeply intimate, using those personal experiences to illustrate fundamental truths about being Black in America. The one very minor outlier were the sections on Paris that paint a naively rosy picture - it's arguably the most segregated city in the world. As an aside, Howard University should send this book to all prospective applicants, since after reading the book I'm now convinced that I need to recommend it to everyone. Highly recommend https://ta-nehisicoates.com/books/between-the-world-and-me/

Last was "The Case against Perfection" by Michael Sandel. While genetic engineering has fallen off the radar a bit in terms of urgent ethical topics, the methodical approach Sandel takes here when examining the ethical implications of the technology are broadly instructive for other technical fields. Working through different ethical concerns and gradually peeling away layers of ethical objections/supporting arguments people have made about different genetic engineering applications, we're able to see the heart of our difficult to articulate concerns and structure our future development and regulatory decisions through those lenses. Highly recommend https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674036383