Distrust, Gary Smith
Distrust, Gary Smith
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Distrust
Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science

Author: Gary Smith

Narrator: Graham Winton

Unabridged: 10 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 06/23/2023


Synopsis

There is no doubt science is currently suffering from a credibility crisis.

This thought-provoking book argues that, ironically, science’s credibility is being undermined by tools created by scientists themselves.

Scientific disinformation and damaging conspiracy theories are rife because of the Internet that science created, the scientific demand for empirical evidence and statistical significance leads to data torturing and confirmation bias, and data mining is fuelled by the technological advances in Big Data and the
development of ever-increasingly powerful computers.

With accessible examples ranging from COVID disinformation to bitcoin and conspiracy theories, this fascinating book examines the impacts of society’s growing distrust of science, and ultimately, through constructive suggestions, paves the way forward for restoring the credibility of the scientific community.

Author Bio

Gary Smith is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics at Pomona College. He received his PhD in economics from Yale University and was an assistant professor there for seven years. He has won two teaching awards and written (or coauthored) more than eighty academic papers and twelve books, including Standard Deviations: Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie With Statistics, What the Luck?: The Surprising Role of Chance in Our Everyday Lives, and Money Machine: The Surprisingly Simple Power of Value Investing. His research has been featured by Bloomberg Radio Network, CNBC, The Brian Lehrer Show, Forbes, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Motley Fool, Newsweek, and BusinessWeek.

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