Human Computers as Instruments

要了解科学是如何运作的，我们需要了解科学知识是如何产生的。这需要调查人类在减少、分析和解释数据方面的作用，以及数据是如何通过仪器和实验产生的。该项目对在数字计算机出现之前在大型科学企业中历来记录和分析数据的人的认识作用进行了一种新颖的跨学科调查。特别是，该项目调查了C1-1935-1955年布里斯托尔核研究小组内的扫描仪和C2-哈佛天文台1880-1920年的人类计算机的认知作用。扫描仪和计算机都是女性，她们来自相对贫穷的家庭，受雇为“非熟练”工人来“愚蠢地”分析数据，被认为是让发现和科学知识变得“更客观”的“理想”人选。但是，这些“隐藏的人物”仅仅是“愚蠢的机器”吗？这种比较的独特哲学价值在于：a)确定新的客观性规范；b)分析科学发现与信誉和作者身份之间的动态关系。此外，这种比较是有价值的对比，因为分析的数据明显不同：扫描仪专门探测照相乳胶板中的宇宙粒子，而人类计算机专门识别恒星的光谱特征和它们的分类。人类计算机作为工具项目将提供分析和伦理工具，用于a)对大规模合作中的认识工作和认识不公进行哲学和规范评估；b)重新评估科学客观性和科学发现的规范；C)科学中信用、作者和奖励制度的管理和交流，d)公众参与更复杂的关于科学中的仪器和实验、科学发现和奖励系统的叙述。这个项目将提供一个重要的平台，以便更好地理解科学知识是如何在大规模合作中产生和合法化的，以及科学信用是如何在这种科学企业中分配的。这对于研究科学知识如何在下列方面产生和合法化的未来哲学和历史工作将是非常宝贵的：i)雇用扫描仪的其他核乳剂和气泡室项目(例如UCL乳胶集团和气泡室小组1955-1975，布鲁克海文国家实验室)；其他雇用人类计算机的天文台或企业(例如爱丁堡天文台，19世纪中叶至20世纪中叶，NACA/NASA 1940-1965)；以及iii)当代大型科学项目，如大科学2企业(如CERN)或公民科学3项目(如哈勃小行星猎人项目)。

To understand how science works we need to understand how scientific knowledge is produced. This requires investigating both the roles of human beings who reduce, analyse, and interpret the data as well as how data is produced by instruments and experiments. The project undertakes a novel and interdisciplinary inquiry into the epistemic roles of the people historically reduced and analysed data in large-scale scientific enterprises before the advent of digital computers. In particular, the project investigates the epistemic roles of C1-the scanners within the Bristol Nuclear Research Group 1935-1955 and C2-the human computers at the Harvard Observatory 1880-1920. Both scanners and human computers were women, from relatively poor backgrounds, who were employed as 'unskilled' workers to 'mindlessly' analyse the data, being regarded as 'ideal' candidates for making discovery and scientific knowledge 'more objective'. But were these 'hidden figures' merely 'mindless machines'? The particular philosophical value of the comparison between C1 and C2 consists in: a) identification of novel objectivity norms; and b) analysis of the dynamics between scientific discovery and credit and authorship. Additionally, the comparison is valuably contrastive in that the data analysed is significantly different: the scanners specialised in the detection of cosmic particles within photographic emulsions plates, whereas the human computers specialised in the identification of the spectral characteristics of stars and their classification.The Human Computers as Instruments project will furnish analytical and ethical tools for a) the philosophical and normative assessment of epistemic work and epistemic injustice within large scale collaborations; b) the re-appraisal of norms of scientific objectivity and scientific discovery; c) the regulation and communication of credit, authorship, and reward systems in science and d) the engagement of the public in more complex narratives of instrumentation and experimentation, scientific discovery, and reward systems in science.This project will provide an essential platform for a better understanding of how scientific knowledge is produced and legitimised in large scale collaborations, as well as of how scientific credit is apportioned in such scientific enterprises. This will be invaluable for future philosophical and historical work which investigates how scientific knowledge is produced and legitimised in i) other nuclear emulsions and bubble chamber projects which hired scanners (e.g. the UCL Emulsion Group and Bubble Chamber Group 1955-1975, the Brookhaven National Laboratory); other Observatories or enterprises which hired human computers (e.g. the Edinburgh Observatory mid 19th to mid 20th centuries, NACA/NASA 1940-1965); as well as iii) contemporary large-scale scientific projects such as big science2 enterprises (e.g. CERN) or citizen science3 projects (e.g. the Hubble Asteroid Hunter project).