1. Towards
Synthetic Social
Sciences/Technologies
Artur Serra
Artur.serra@i2cat.net
Humanities in Transition.
Barcelona, October 25th, 2018.

2. I. The Quest for The Sciences of
Design

5. “Design Culture”:
Ethnography of School of Computer Science.
Carnegie Mellon, 1990-1993.
5
Projecte de recerca:
“Ciències del disseny,
noves tecnologies i
tradició cultural”
(1990-93), finançat
PelDepartament
De Presidència de la
Generalitat
http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/119229

6. 25 years of research projects

7. The “ARPA laboratories”
Prior to 1965, there were no U.S. universities granting a Ph.D. in computer
science.
´”Licklider, and his ARPA successors, provided funding for the research needed
to create university graduate programs in computer science at U.C. Berkeley,
CMU, MIT and Stanford.
It wasn't until 1969 that Ph.D's in computer science were awarded”.
http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/99HISTORYCD-ARPA-History.HTM

8. “Computer Science as an
artificial science”. 1988
8
- " Since computer science is an artificial science
(Simon 1981) theoretical computer science plays a
very different role within computer science than, say,
theoretical physics plays within physics.
- Theoretical physics seeks to understand the physical
universe, which exists independently. Theoretical
computer scientists seek to understand all possible
architectures or algorithms, which computer
scientists create themselves."
- “The National Challenge in Computer Science and Technology”
Computer Science and Technology Board, National Research Council,
1988.

11. “The scientists of the artificial”
Alan TuringFrank
Oppenheimer
J. Von Neumann Claude Shannon
WWII, Scientists became engineers,
and the engineers, scientists..

12. Computer Science the first “science of
design” or synthetic science.

13. “What Engineers Know and How
They Know It”
1964, Foundation of the
US National Academy of Engineers.
Research engineers: “Technology as knowledge”.
Engineers that want to know what they know. It is not “applied science”.
They do research based not in discovery but in design.
And its theories are validated not by facts but by deeds.
“’Design,’of course, denotes both the content of a set of plans... and the process
by which those plans are produced. In the later meaning, it tipically involves
tentative layout of the arrangement and dimensions of the artífice, checking of
the candidate device by mathematical analysis or experimental test to see if it does
the required job, and modification when (as commonly happens at first)
it does not”. (W. Vincenti, 1990: 7)
“
Walter Vincenti.
Professor of
Aeronautical Engineering.
Stanford University.
1990.

14. Beyond The Pasteur Quadrant
(Donal Stokes, 1997)
Classic greek paradign was based
in “pure science”, different from
“crafts”.
Modern R&D systems want to
realize the Pasteur model:
Pure science and applied science
working together
New high tech models are open
a new way: Synthetic sciences and
technologies for understanding
and designing new possible worlds.

15. “Sciences of artificial” are now called
Synthetic Sciences

16. II. Is it possible a techno-
anthropology?

17. Evolution from Analytic to Synthetic
Sciences/Technologies
XVII-XIX centuries
Logic, Mathematics,
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Engineering
1945-XXI Century
Computer Science
Nanotechnology
Synthetic Biology
Cognitive sciences
XIX-XX centuries
Economy
Psycology
Sociology
Anthropology
Political science
2000-…
Techno-anthropology
Tecno-politics
Techno-economics
Digital Social Innovation
From Analytical
to Synthetic
Sciences.
( Sciences of the
Artificial.H. Simon).
Analytical Synthetic

18. Techno-anthropology
Maria J. Buxó
Angel Jordan (1992)
“It is the study of technology as
cultural system…
Techno-anthropology elaborates
the knwoledge expert systems
that allow the cultural design be
born”.
(“System Building” A. Serra 1992:5)
http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/handle/2445/1192
29

19. Techno-cultures.

20. Starting a community.

21. What techno-anthropology can
be?
As a synthetic social
science:
technoanthropology is
dedicate to augment our
knowledge about what kind
of cultural systems are
possible and how to build
them for good.

23. Are open labs new knowledge
structures possibles?

24. The world of Labs

25. A current question for Synthetic Social
Sciences
Can a human society become a lab?

26. Is it possible universal innovation ecosystems?

28. The Catlabs project as a first pilot

29. Synthetic social sciences and new
human values and rights.
• Beyond the idea of “ethics should limit high tech”.
• Ethics should be based in new human behaviors and customs.
• High tech has its own ethical code: the ethics of innovation.
• Are new human rights possible in the knowledge society?
• Is the universal right to innovate a new human right?

30. Techno-anthropology methods
• Social design,
• Ethnographic Future Research (R.Textor)
• Social simulation,
• Digital auto-ethnographies,
• Digital social innovation
• Responsible research and innovation.
• Citizen-centric research and innovation, living labs.

31. Manifesto for Synthetic Social Sciences/Technologies
1. Synthetic sciences/technologies are on their way : computer science, synthetic biology, nano sciences, ....
2. The next step can be the generation of synthetic social sciences/technologies
Technoanthropology, tecnopolitics, ... can be considered re initial examples of such emerging fields.
3. Like the other synthetic sciences/technologies, synthetics social S/T will be design sciences (H.Simon)
4. Their goal: understanding what kind of new cultural, social, political, economics,
cognitive human worlds are possible and how to build it.
5. Our methods: social design, ethnographic future research (R. Textor), living labs,
social simulation, digital autoethnographies, digital social innovation, responsible research and innovation.
6. Synthetic social sciences behave in relation with traditional social sciences like synthetic biology acts
in relation with molecular biology.
7. Synthetic social sciences are at the same time synthetic social technologies.
8. In relation with the field of ethics, synthetic social sciences/technologies admit the possibility of a
new field: synthetic ethics, a field of invention of what new human values are possible through a selection and
synthesis of values of different human cultures.
9. The synthetic social scientists/technologists have an experimental ethos based in the principle of self-experiment.
We put ourselves in risk at first in any kind of social experimentation or social design. We are responsible of our
experiments.
May 1st 2018.

32. Synthetic
social sciences’quest:
“Can we advance
knowledge about
what we may be?”.

33. Next November 15th, 2018
First International Seminar
What futures for techno-anthropology?
Speakers.
Tom Borsten, Aalborg University
Jordi Colobrans, Universitat de Barcelona
Max Matus, COLEF Mexico
Artur Serra, i2cat Foundation.
Place:
i2cat (Barcelona) and Internet.
Fundació i2cat
Gran Capita 2, planta 2a.
Barcelona 08034.
https://goo.gl/maps/wBfXqAo63JG2
Time: 17am-20pm
More info: artur.serra@i2cat.net

34. Thanks a lot,
artur.serra@i2cat.net