Computer & Social Science: A Love Story

I am often amazed at the shock that an anthropologist is also a web developer. I get questions like this often,

“Why did you make the the change?”
“Wow that is so different?”
“Why would you want to be an anthropologist? Software Developer? (take your pick)”

What I don’t get is, why does everyone think it so different?

Its really not. In fact, I would say that the two disciplines need each other. The minute computers start interfacing with humans, computer science and social science collide. Actually, it is way before that. As long as there are people that design and build the hardware, and design and build the software, there is a human element. In the scope of history, computing is yet another tool that humans have used to extend themselves in the world. There is a whole theory behind it. The short version goes:

Human makes hammer to be an extension of arm and force.

Human makes carriage to be an extension of legs and running.

Human makes database to be extension of brain and memory.

See where this is going?

But social science is all about feelings right? Or is it about communication? Or is it about eating granola and wearing Birkenstocks?

Steroetypes are bad.

It might surprise some to learn that social science is real science. In fact, I shun the idea of hard and soft science. WTF, does that mean anyway? Anyone who has ever studied humans knows there is nothing all that soft about it.

Besides, social science grew out of natural sciences. Freud was a Physician and Neurologist who just couldn’t shake the belief that there may be something else affecting his patients brain. Franz Boas was a physicist and geologist who studied near the north pole and noticed that Inuit were an interesting group of people that no one knew anything about. Social Science is the destiny of the study of natural sciences. Not their opposition.

And computers? That isn’t quite natural science because we get to make what they do. We use computers to create entire second selves, that live lives in a virtual space that is arguably more valuable than our physical space. That sounds a lot more like psychology, sociology and anthropological analytics to me.

There are many more reasons to celebrate bringing these studies together, than there are for treating them as totally separate disciplines. There is evidence that I am not alone. There is the rise of computational social science, and the study of human computer interaction. There is even more promise with the growth of Big Data and analytics. But, I think we need to go way deeper. I am on a mission to find the right path for myself to make all these roads unite. I would love to hear from others who are doing the same.