I was drawn to Al’s analysis of the Golden Record Curation data because in reading his reflection, I realized I had found a fellow scientist. As a laboratory coordinator in higher education, I spend a lot of time talking with students about data analysis and topics such as correlation vs. causation. Al explained our inability to know why anyone chose the tracks they did in terms of untestable hypotheses. The clear and concise explanation of his methods of data manipulation were easy to read, and I was fascinated by the way he used the filters in the Palladio app to explore potential cultural biases by looking at the number of times western songs were chosen. The idea of cultural bias had crossed my mind, but I wasn’t sure how to go about looking into it. In the end, I believe that we both came to the same conclusion: that the data can only show us what was chosen and how often, but cannot give us an answer as to the motivation of the humans who chose the tracks.
Al’s Viz of the Golden Record Curations
Great post, Al! If you ever do design a T-shirt with the slogan, “5 out of 4 people don’t trust statistics,” I will order one of them 🙂