AlphaGO, Two Triangles, and your Political Intuitions Walk into a Bar with Jordan Ellenberg

PodcastMay 31, 2021
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There’s never going to be a final answer to ‘who’s watching who’, like who’s in charge and who’s subservient. I think in the end, there’s always going to be an interplay between the human and the device…You have to accept that there’s going to be iterations of responsibility and supervision between the human and the machine.

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Intro

In this episode of The Decision Corner, Brooke speaks with Jordan Ellenberg, best-selling author and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Through his research and his books, which include How Not to be Wrong, and more recently, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else, Jordan illustrates how abstract mathematical and geometric equations can be brought to life, and indeed used to address some of the major challenges facing the world today. In today’s episode, Jordan and Brooke talk about:

  • The different types of ‘games’ or problems that people and society in general face, and why they require different types of solutions.
  • The interplay between human decision-making and AI or algorithmic approaches, and understanding which methods should take precedence in which situations.
  • Gerrymandering, electoral system design and finding better ways to facilitate democracy.
  • Understanding how AI can be an effective safeguard when we humans develop the rules of the game.

About the Guest

Jordan Ellenberg

Jordan Ellenberg grew up in Potomac, Maryland, the child of two statisticians. He excelled in mathematics from a young age, and competed for the US in the International Mathematical Olympiad three times, winning two gold medals and a silver. He completed his undergraduate at Harvard, followed by a master’s degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in mathematics back at Harvard. After graduate school, Ellenberg was a postdoc at Princeton University. In 2004, he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he is now the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics. Ellenberg’s research centers on the fields of number theory and algebraic geometry, the parts of mathematics which address fundamental questions about algebraic equations and their solutions in whole numbers. Ellenberg’s research has uncovered new and unexpected connections between these subjects and algebraic topology, the study of abstract high-dimensional shapes and the relations between them. 

Ellenberg has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships including a NSF-CAREER grant, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Simons Fellowship. He has also written about math for the general public for more than fifteen years; in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Wired, The Believer, and the Boston Globe. He is the author of the “Do the Math” column in Slate and his novel, The Grasshopper King, was a finalist for the 2004 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. His 2014 book How Not To Be Wrong was a New York Times and Sunday Times (London) bestseller.

About the Interviewer

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Dr. Brooke Struck

Dr. Brooke Struck is the Research Director at The Decision Lab. He is an internationally recognized voice in applied behavioural science, representing TDL’s work in outlets such as Forbes, Vox, Huffington Post and Bloomberg, as well as Canadian venues such as the Globe & Mail, CBC and Global Media. Dr. Struck hosts TDL’s podcast “The Decision Corner” and speaks regularly to practicing professionals in industries from finance to health & wellbeing to tech & AI.

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