#AcademicRunPlaylist - 5/9/25

I had to take the car to the shop again, but at least I got to see one of these for real (might be a stupid tech purchase for me at some point when/if tariffs come down)! Also while waiting around I listened to talks/books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting talk by Erick Gankam Tambo on indigenous knowledge systems and AI at the Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqzNllt4HmI

Next was "The Age of Empire" by Eric Hobsbawm. This book is the last of Hobsbawm's original trilogy, and similar to the second it covers the 40 years prior to WWI in a standard fashion - informative but with little insight. Despite being written in the late 90s, it's just as inexcusably racist as the other volumes. If you can ignore that (it's hard) it's a fine book on the period, but it's unremarkable from a modern perspective https://archive.org/details/ageofempire1875100hobs_0

Last was "Nudge: The Final Edition" by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. The final edition is updated with some more recent examples, and beyond the standard behavioral economics/psychology research review there's great perspective on the necessity of nudging. Even with including a final chapter addressing some criticisms, it falls into the same behavioral economics trap of failing to interrogate how systems are originally set up under which one engages in nudging. The book itself is up front about its neoliberal bent, but given the glaring failure of that model and the inherent limit on time/focus that regulators and companies have, more grappling with these tradeoffs would've been appropriate. That being said, this is an excellent book, especially if you're unfamiliar with foundational work in this area. Highly recommend https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690485/nudge-by-richard-h-thaler-and-cass-r-sunstein/