Big data and the future of democracy: How can people hold analytics and algorithms to account?

1. Scientific facts are myths,
told through fairytales,
and spread by gossip.
Anita de Waard, Elsevier
University of Utrecht, UIL-OTS
(with funding by NWO-Casimir)

2. Scientific facts are myths, told through fairytales,
and spread by gossip.
1. Scientific articles are stories, that persuade with data.
2. Facts are claims, agreed on by a committee, and spread like gossip.
3. Scientific sensemaking is similar to mythological sensemaking.
> So what can we do?

3. 1. Scientific papers are stories, that persuade with data.
Story Grammar The Story of Goldilocks and the Three
Bears
Setting Time Once upon a time
Character a little girl named Goldilocks
Location She went for a walk in the forest.
Pretty soon, she came upon a house.
Theme Goal She knocked and, when no one answered,
Attempt she walked right in.
Episode Name At the table in the kitchen, there were three bowls of
porridge.
Subgoal Goldilocks was hungry.
Attempt She tasted the porridge from the first bowl.
Outcome This porridge is too hot! she exclaimed.
Attempt So, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl.
Outcome This porridge is too cold, she said
Attempt So, she tasted the last bowl of porridge.
Outcome Ahhh, this porridge is just right, she said happily and
Outcome she ate it all up.
Paper Grammar The AXH Domain of Ataxin-1 Mediates Neurodegeneration
through Its Interaction with Gfi-1/Senseless Proteins
Background The mechanisms mediating SCA1 pathogenesis are still not fully understood, but
some general principles have emerged.
Objects of study the Drosophila Atx-1 homolog (dAtx-1) which lacks a polyQ tract,
Experimental
setup
studied and compared in vivo effects and interactions to those of the human
protein
Research
problem
How these interactions might contribute to the disease process and how they
might cause toxicity in only a subset of neurons in SCA1 is not fully understood.
Hypothesis Atx-1 may play a role in the regulation of gene expression
Name dAtX-1 and hAtx-1 Induce Similar Phenotypes When Overexpressed in Files
Subgoal To test the function of the AXH domain
Method overexpressed dAtx-1 in flies using the GAL4/UAS system (Brand and Perrimon,
1993) and compared its effects to those of hAtx-1.
Results Although at 2 days after eclosion, overexpression of either Atx-1 does not show
obvious morphological changes in the photoreceptor cells
Data (data not shown),
Results both genotypes show many large holes and loss of cell integrity at 28 days
Data (Figures 1B-1D).
Results Overexpression of dAtx-1 using the GMR-GAL4 driver also induces eye
abnormalities. The external structures of the eyes that overexpress dAtx-1 show
disorganized ommatidia and loss of interommatidial bristles

4. 2. Facts are claims, agreed on by a committee,
and spread like gossip.
Voorhoeve et al., 2006: “These miRNAs neutralize p53- mediated CDK
inhibition, possibly through direct inhibition of the expression of the
tumor suppressor LATS2.”
Kloosterman and Plasterk, 2006: “In a genetic screen, miR-372 and miR-
373 were found to allow proliferation of primary human cells that express
oncogenic RAS and active p53, possibly by inhibiting the tumor
suppressor LATS2 (Voorhoeve et al., 2006).”
Okada et al., 2011: “Two oncogenic miRNAs, miR-372 and miR-373,
directly inhibit the expression of Lats2, thereby allowing tumorigenic
growth in the presence of p53 (Voorhoeve et al., 2006).”
“… you can transform fact into fiction, or fiction into fact
just by adding or subtracting references”, Bruno Latour [1]

5. Typical Tense
Use
Example from Science Example from Mythology
Conceptual
understanding in
the eternal
present
Endogenous small RNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene
expression by mechanisms conserved across
metazoans.
I sing of golden-throned Hera whom Rhea bare. Queen of the
immortals is she, surpassing all in beauty: she is the sister and
the wife of loud-thundering Zeus, --the glorious one whom all the
blessed throughout high Olympus reverence and honor.
Empirical
evidence/events
in the simple past
Vehicle-treated animals spent equivalent time
investigating a juvenile in the first and second
sessions in experiments conducted in the NAC and
the striatum: T1 values were 122 ± 6 s and 114 ± 5 s.
Now the wooers turned to the dance and to gladsome song, and
made them merry, and waited till evening should come; and as
they made merry dark evening came upon them.
Events with
embedded facts
We also generated BJ/ET cells expressing the
RASV12-ERTAM chimera gene, which is only active
when tamoxifen is added (De Vita et al, 2005).
And she took her mighty spear, tipped with sharp bronze, heavy
and huge and strong, wherewith she vanquishes the ranks of
men-of warriors, with whom she is wroth…
Attribution in the
present perfect
miRNAs have emerged as important regulators of
development and control processes such as cell fate
determination and cell death (Abrahante et al., 2003,
Brennecke et al., 2003, Chang et al., 2004, Chen et
al., 2004, Johnston and Hobert, 2003…]
In this book I have had old stories written down, as I have heard
them told by intelligent people, concerning chiefs who have held
dominion in the northern countries, and who spoke the Danish
tongue; and also concerning some of their family branches,
according to what has been told me.
Implications are
hedged, and in
the present tense
These results indicate that although miR-372&3
confer complete protection to oncogene-induced
senescence in a manner similar to p53 inactivation,
the cellular response to DNA damage remains intact
Now it is said that ever since then whenever the camel sees a
place where ashes have been scattered, he wants to get revenge
with his enemy the rat and stomps and rolls in the ashes hoping
to get the rat
3. Scientific discourse is similar to
mythological discourse.
Argumen-
tation:
Present
Experiment/
Event
Past
Concepts/Models
‘Present

6. So: what can we do?
• In short:
• Science is done by people in language (with data behind it)
• The myth of the ‘impartial observer’ finding ‘facts’ is not helpful to anyone
• How can we improve scholarly communication?
• Better ways of citation: more granular, link to & show claims
• Better ways of accessing data: everything Ioannidis said!
• More modesty regarding truth value of claims.
• BUT: writing/citing papers is ‘the worst form of fact-creation except from
all the other forms that have been tried…’ (and it literally cures cancer!)
• While improving scholarly communication, we need to let more people partake!
• To combat division and manipulation (by media, governments etc), we should all
model, encourage and teach scholarly skepticism and independent thought
• These habits of mind are perhaps the most useful products of science.