On Friday 2 October\, C. Thi N guyen (University of Utah) will be joining us for a talk and Q&A session on "Value Capture and Value Collapse" in the first event of our 2020 Colloqui a series.
Abstract: Value capture occur s when an agent’s values are rich and subtle\; they enter a social environm ent that presents simplified — typically quantified — versions of those val ues\; and those simplified articulations come to dominate their practical r easoning. Examples include FitBit step counts\, Twitter Likes and Retweets\ , citation rates\, and academic journal rankings. We are vulnerable to valu e capture because of the competitive advantage that such crisp and clear ex pressions of value have in our private reasoning and our public justificati on. But value capture poses several threats. First\, value capture threaten s to change the goals of our activities\, potentially undermining their val ue. Twitter’s scoring system threatens to replace some of the richer goals of communication — understanding\, connection\, and the mutual pursuit of t ruth — with the thinner goals of getting likes and going viral. Second\, in value capture\, we outsource the process of value deliberation. We will no longer be adjusting our values and their articulations in light of own ric h experience of the world. Instead\, we are substituting rigid and pre-fabr icated values\, usually engineered for the interests of some external force . Our values should be carefully tailored to our particular selves\, but in value capture\, we buy our values off the rack. Third\, value capture’s ou tsourcing typically leads narrowly explicated articulations of value — like typical institutional metrics. An agent who internalizes such narrowed val ues\, will thereby narrow the scope of their attentions and considerations. The agent can cut themselves off from the experiences that might help thei r values continue to evolve. This is value collapse.
About th e Speaker: C. Thi Nguyen is a former food writer\, and current phi losophy professor at the University of Utah. His work is focused on "trust \, art\, games\, and communities\,” and he is "interested in the ways that our social structures and technologies shape how we think and what we value .” Professor Nguyen's first book is Games: Agency as Art< /em>. For more information\, please visit his website.
Interested in attending this event? Please e-mai l phil.ugradengagement@ubc.ca for the Zoom link.
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