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Articles by Timandra Harkness
Dare to be free
Share Topics Long-reads Politics UK Want unlimited, ad-free access? Become a spiked supporter. We live in profoundly risk-averse times. And this has had a tremendous impact on individual freedom. Every aspect is increasingly overshadowed by a concern over the seemingly adverse consequences of our actions. Every potential decision, right down to what we choose to eat or drink, is increasingly regulated by officialdom. In this context, how do we start to re-make the case for individual freedom?
“I have a very short attention span, but statistics never bores me” Free
You started out in economics, and then migrated to statistics for your PhD. Why? Although I enjoyed studying economics, the deeper I went into the discipline, the more I gravitated toward its mathematical and statistical aspects. Immediately after completing my MS degree, I was offered the opportunity to teach a few economics courses as an adjunct at Wright State University (where I earned my undergraduate and master's degrees).
The High Street’s authoritarian turn Live facial recognition is no solution to crime
Credit: John Keeble / Getty Images anonymitycctvLFRpolitical freedom Prefer us on Google If the police wouldn’t help, then Simon Gordon would. For eight years, he’d been the proprietor of London’s oldest wine bar, his family business Gordon’s, where some fifteen crimes happened every month. It was mostly pickpockets: two of his friends even had their wallets stolen while visiting him at the bar.
Digging in the (social media) dirt
Offence archaeologists – individuals, organisations and state actors – are becoming more adept at discrediting their targets. Their new tool? Generative AI. TIMANDRA HARKNESS explores “offence mining” on social media The AI-powered X analysis tool Wordware roasts author J K Rowling CREDIT: https://twitter.wordware.ai/jk_rowling THOSE OF US who grew up before the age of social media can thank our lucky stars that our youthful indiscretions were not recorded and posted online.
Do London’s power outages spell disaster?
electricityEnergyPowerStageSocietyclimate activismTheatreUK At the end of the first song, the centre of the stage went dark, though there was still light in the wings and the auditorium. The cast ad-libbed about not being able to see each other. I thought nothing of it. Years ago, I worked in theatre lighting myself, and I learnt that there are many reasons why part of a stage can lose light: a blown fuse, the mechanical failure of a single light, an operator error.
Punch-cards, concentration camps and René Carmille
Public fears that census data could be used for nefarious purposes are hardly baseless.
Can big tech stop small boats?
asylumIllegal MigrationIllegal Migrationsmall boatsSocietytechUK Last week, police used tear gas against dozens of people on a French beach, trying to prevent them boarding an inflatable boat bound for England. Once the would-be migrants had reached the water, though, the Gendarmes watched helplessly as they waded towards the waiting “taxi boat” and climbed aboard. As the people smugglers know, the police can only intervene on dry land.
Scepticism won't save you
CoviddiverseFactsLogicScienceStatistics In 1939, with his native Germany under totalitarian rule, Bertolt Brecht wrote a poem. Called “In Praise of Doubt” it encourages readers to always question established orthodoxies. Brecht mocks “the thoughtless who never doubt”, and who “don’t believe in the facts”, relying instead on their own opinions. But the poet’s main target is those who tell the downtrodden that their place in the world is inevitable, preordained, and impossible to challenge.
The tragedy of Palestine
Share Topics Politics World Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter. That footage of Yahya Sinwar’s last, gasping breaths before he was justly shuffled off this mortal coil was extraordinary. Here we had the death agony of a fascist broadcast to the world. Crooked and hunched in a chair coated in dust, in a building bombed almost to nothing, he stared forlornly at his final foe: an Israeli drone.
The insufferable attention-seeking of Lidia Thorpe
Her clash with King Charles is one in a long line of cringeworthy stunts. Share Topics Politics UK World Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter. There was a sense of inevitability to the scenes at Australia’s Parliament House on Monday, where a ceremony for King Charles was gatecrashed by firebrand indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe.
The SNP’s 24 genders
Agender, demigender, autigender? The Scottish Nationalists are lost to trans ideology. Share Topics Identity Politics UK Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter. How many genders are there, exactly? Most people would answer this formerly straightforward question with a resounding ‘two’. Or they might junk the whole gender concept entirely and say there are two sexes. But the SNP thinks differently. According to the Scottish government, there are actually a whopping 24 genders.
Why we need more ‘polarisation’
This is an edited version of a speech Tom Slater gave at the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 20 October 2024, in the session ‘The polarisation problem: can we speak across the divide?’. I’d like to spend the time I have mounting a trenchant defence of polarisation – or at least what is often called ‘polarisation’ by our political and media classes. The narrative that is constantly being spun at the moment is that, as of about 10 years ago, politics was… perfect. It was consensual.
Net Zero means zero growth
Jon Moynihan on how the UK went from an industrial powerhouse to an economic backwater. Share Topics Politics UK Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter. Britain, the nation that birthed the Industrial Revolution, is now a world leader in deindustrialisation. The power stations, oil refineries and steelworks that helped make the UK wealthy are now closing down and moving abroad. High energy prices are crippling industry and hurting households.
The narcissism of the digital world
Share Topics Long-reads Science & Tech Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter. I’ve spent over a decade writing and talking about technology, and how central it is to our changing way of life. I am excited about the potential of technology to improve human lives, from medical advances to more plentiful, clean energy and faster, cheaper travel.
TikTok won't win the election
2024 General ElectionaiConservative partyLabour PartyPoliticsReformUKTechnologyTikTokUK Is this the online election? The AI election? The TikTok election? As somebody who’s been writing about data-driven political campaigning for about a decade, I’m going to stick my neck out and say “no”. Let’s start with TikTok, which the major political parties have only recently discovered, creating their accounts once the election was called.
The Future of the Space Industry
The widely discussed private space missions financed by billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are only part of a far larger development in the space industry, where the focus is shifting from government agencies to private companies.
The Bell 212 Tolls for Tehran
On Sunday 19 May, a 1970s US-made Bell 212 helicopter carrying the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian crashed as it flew back to Tehran from Azerbaijan. Both men and several other passengers were killed. Raisi was a widely detested figure known as the “Butcher of Tehran,” and there has been a good deal of rejoicing in Iran at the news of his death. We should share that sentiment.
Podcast #237: The (Culture) War Diaries of Nellie Bowles
Introduction This week, you’re in for a treat because my guest isn’t just a razor-sharp observer of the American culture wars, she’s also wickedly funny, in person as well as in print. Her name is Nellie Bowles, whom you might know from her work covering Silicon Valley at The New York Times until she quit in 2021 after observing—or perhaps enduring is the better word—her newspaper’s slide into vicious social-justice bullying among young members of the editorial staff.
The Digital Mirror of Narcissus
Some people might be surprised to learn that I have just published a book entitled Technology is Not the Problem. After all, I regularly point out problems with technology in our asymmetric world, where a few companies or organisations collect data about us all, aggregate and analyse that data and use it for their own purposes.
Technology is Not the Problem
(Author) FORMAT Pre-Order Ships 23 May 2024 We already know how much of our data is collected and used to profile and target us. The real question is why, knowing all this, do we keep going back for more? Technology has delivered a world that we expect to revolve around us, our needs and preferences, and our unique personalities. Each of us willingly yields up the most intimate facets of our behaviour and interests in return for a world that’s exponentially easier to navigate.
From Caregivers to Social Reformers
A quiet revolution in the practice of medicine in North America has taken place within the last decade. Professional associations, medical schools, and an increasing number of physicians no longer consider the primary duty of the physician to be care of the individual patient, but rather social reform—in particular, the urgent goal of achieving equity by addressing the social needs of identity groups perceived as marginalised.
Technology is Not the Problem by Timandra Harkness
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The personal has consumed the political
aiBig dataChartismDataIdentity politicsnonePoliticsTech & Data SectorWomen's Liberation Movement “The 2016 election cycle will be remembered for many things, but for those who work in politics, it may be best remembered as the year that political data reached maturity.” — Andrew Therriault In 2004, 22-year old Andrew Therriault wanted to get a Democrat president elected. “I got in my car and drove to Ohio,” he told me.
We need to calm down about screen time
ChildrenEducationMobile phonesnoneScienceTechnology “You stare at a screen. That’s all you do every night. No one wants to talk to you, and they get annoyed whenever you call.” Pete Etchells wrote those lonely words in a miserable teenage blog in 2002, just before 10pm on a bleak December night. He’s now a Professor of Psychology and the author of a new book on the science of screen time.
This year, embrace chaos
Here’s a riddle: Since we live in an uncertain and unpredictable world, and humans have evolved to survive and thrive in it, why do we crave certainty? Wouldn’t we be more successful as a species if our default mode were to assume that everything was uncertain, and that we need to be constantly vigilant to anticipate the next thing we’ll have to deal with?
From the River to the Sea: The Significance of a Slogan
The phrases “from the river to the sea” and “Palestine will be free” serve as a call and response in many protests on behalf of Palestinians or against Israel. Both the prevalence and the controversy surrounding the refrain “from the river to the sea” have increased since Hamas’s 7 October attack. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was recently censured by the US House of Representatives, in part for her endorsement of the slogan.
The cynical hysteria around AI
When it comes to whipping up AI hysteria, there is a tried-and-tested algorithm — or at least a formula. First, find an inventor or “entrepreneur” behind some “ground-breaking” AI technology. Then, get them to say how “dangerous” and “risky” their software is. Bonus points if you get them to do so in an open letter signed by dozens of fellow “distinguished experts”.
The cynical hysteria around AI
aiArtificial intelligencechatgptdigital ageTechnology When it comes to whipping up AI hysteria, there is a tried-and-tested algorithm — or at least a formula. First, find an inventor or “entrepreneur” behind some “ground-breaking” AI technology. Then, get them to say how “dangerous” and “risky” their software is. Bonus points if you get them to do so in an open letter signed by dozens of fellow “distinguished experts”.
Is the Government spying on you?
“Government cracks down on spread of false coronavirus information online,” announced a UK Government press release on March 30, 2020. “Specialist units” are tackling dangerous misinformation, disinformation, criminal fraudsters, and “false and misleading narratives”, we were told. But, as Big Brother Watch revealed on Sunday, the activities of these units went far beyond refuting claims such as “gargling warm water cures Covid”.
The trouble with online safetyism
Epileptics being maliciously exposed to flashing images. Children being bullied via social media. Adults being misled by material about medical interventions. Since it was conceived by academics in 2018, the Online Safety Bill — which returns to Parliament this week — has expanded in scope to cover very disparate potential harms. It has not, however, resolved the fundamental problems with the Bill’s approach to the online world.
The trouble with online safetyism
BullyingCyberbullyingOnline Safety BillOnlyFanspornsafetyismTikTokVimeo Epileptics being maliciously exposed to flashing images. Children being bullied via social media. Adults being misled by material about medical interventions. Since it was conceived by academics in 2018, the Online Safety Bill — which returns to Parliament this week — has expanded in scope to cover very disparate potential harms. It has not, however, resolved the fundamental problems with the Bill’s approach to the online world.
The slow death of the NHS
Every day, we’re told that the NHS is collapsing. It’s failing the sick and wounded at their hour of greatest need, leaving frail old people lying for hours without an ambulance, farming out patients to care homes, and forcing the chronically sick to wait years for treatment that would enable them to get on with their lives. But is this true? Yes, I am afraid it is.
The slow death of the NHS
CovidHealthNHSSocial careUK politics Every day, we’re told that the NHS is collapsing. It’s failing the sick and wounded at their hour of greatest need, leaving frail old people lying for hours without an ambulance, farming out patients to care homes, and forcing the chronically sick to wait years for treatment that would enable them to get on with their lives. But is this true? Yes, I am afraid it is.
How Covid stole our privacy
As soon as I turn on my phone, it becomes a node in a network, giving me access to the entire world. But it also gives Apple access to information about me and my behaviour; I become another source in their vast banks of data. So, as Stephanie Hare rightly points out in Technology Is Not Neutral, it’s never just an object. Technology is as much social as scientific, as much economics as engineering.
The history of the data economy: Part IV: The future
Do you want to feel special? Go to coveryourtracks.eff.org and click the “Test Your Browser” button. That's how I found out that my web browser fingerprint is unique among the 220,694 the Electronic Frontier Foundation tested in the previous 45 days. This was a surprise.
The new kings and queens of data | Feature
Data is now the fuel that drives business – identifying potential markets, shaping new products, and targeting consumers. Impact has partnered with Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, to jointly publish a series exploring the past, present and future of the data economy. This third part tells the story of the evolution of social media, which created rich and detailed data sources and positioned tech giants as data economies in their own right.
The hounding of Kathleen Stock
On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to chair a public event on “Hate, Heresy and the Fight for Free Speech” in London. I expected it to be a lively discussion; I’ve made two radio series celebrating the importance of disagreement. But I also expected it to be civilised, with respect shown for people, but not for bad ideas.
When the personal became political
If the 1970s was a period of political conflict and upheaval in the UK, the 1980s was a decade of endings and beginnings. The miners’ strike of 1984-5 marked the final defeat of the trades unions as a political force in Britain, by a conservative government led since 1979 by Margaret Thatcher. But alongside the humbling of the National Union of Mineworkers came a broader political emphasis on the self-sufficient individual.
The history of the data economy: Analytics arrives | Feature
Impact has partnered with Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, to jointly publish a series exploring the past, present and future of the data economy. The second part tells the story of the arrival of analytics and efforts to better understand consumer behaviour using new data sources. By Timandra Harkness. “Seeing is the new asking.” That’s what Stephan Gans, chief insights and analytics officer at PepsiCo, constantly tells his colleagues.
We are hostages to Government fear
As “Liberation Day” recedes into the future, it feels like we’re trapped in an endless limbo — something between Purgatory and that bit in a horror film where the characters are all laughing in relief at finally being safe, but you know there’s still half an hour to go. Most of the vulnerable have been vaccinated, and weekly deaths are still below the five-year average. Over the past week, an average of 10 people died from Covid-19 every day in the UK, a drop of 9% on the week before’s toll.
We are hostages to Government fear
Boris JohnsonCOVID-19Delta variantlockdownPandemicRisksagevirus As “Liberation Day” recedes into the future, it feels like we’re trapped in an endless limbo — something between Purgatory and that bit in a horror film where the characters are all laughing in relief at finally being safe, but you know there’s still half an hour to go. Most of the vulnerable have been vaccinated, and weekly deaths are still below the five-year average.
The history of the data economy: The birth of customer insight | Feature
Data is now the fuel that drives business, identifying potential markets, shaping new products, and targeting would-be consumers. To understand where we may be heading next, Impact has partnered with Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, to jointly publish a series exploring the past, present and future of the data economy. The first part tells the story of the birth of customer insight.
Royal Statistical Society Publications
The world has changed dramatically over the past 200 years, and the economy has changed with it. Data is now the fuel that drives business – identifying potential markets, shaping new products and targeting would‐be consumers. Practically every major company is investing in statistics, data science and artificial intelligence. Such investments are made so that data can be analysed to identify trends, patterns, and opportunities to deliver a competitive edge.
Why we love Big Brother
After achieving her childhood dream of going to MIT, Joy Buolamwini tried to build an art project called “The Aspire Mirror”. The device she designed would greet her face every morning by projecting a different, inspiring image onto her reflection. A fearless lion’s face, for example. The trouble was, the off-the-shelf facial recognition program Buolamwini was using didn’t even recognise her face as a face. To get the Aspire Mirror to work, she had to don a white plastic mask.
Boris needs to take a risk
How long will this virus be with us? Earlier this week, the scientific journal Nature published an international survey of 119 Covid-19 experts — immunologists, virologists and epidemiologists — about the likely future of the virus and the human race. Almost nine in ten of them thought it likely that Covid would become endemic in the human population, continuing to circulate at least in some regions for many years to come. Six in ten thought it “very likely”.
We've turned teens into lockdown lab rats
Last year an experiment was carried out on a group of adolescents to see how they would respond to being denied contact with others of the same age. The results were stark — starved of interaction with their own generation, the adolescents subsequently grew up to be more angry and fearful, drank more alcohol and found it harder to interact with others.
We've turned teens into lockdown lab rats
CoronavirusCOVID-19lockdownschool closures Last year an experiment was carried out on a group of adolescents to see how they would respond to being denied contact with others of the same age. The results were stark — starved of interaction with their own generation, the adolescents subsequently grew up to be more angry and fearful, drank more alcohol and found it harder to interact with others.
Are computers taking control?
“Ain’t I a woman?” asked American abolitionist, Sojourner Truth in 1851. In terms of human worth and value, was she not the equal of any white woman? Well, no. Not according to modern face recognition software. As computer scientist Joy Buolamwini discovered when researching AI bias some 170 years later, the algorithm thought Sojourner was a man. Many image classification systems tend to misclassify black women’s faces as male. That’s if they recognise them as human faces at all.
Can a computer be moral?
aiAlgorithmsGoNeural networksThe Alignment Problem “Ain’t I a woman?” asked American abolitionist, Sojourner Truth in 1851. In terms of human worth and value, was she not the equal of any white woman? Well, no. Not according to modern face recognition software. As computer scientist Joy Buolamwini discovered when researching AI bias some 170 years later, the algorithm thought Sojourner was a man. Many image classification systems tend to misclassify black women’s faces as male.
The pandemic didn't shatter society, Zoom did
Thank you science. Last February, predicting a working Covid-19 vaccine within 18 months seemed wildly optimistic. Less than a year later, we have two ready for injection, and another well on the way. When today’s teenagers can get back into their school or university laboratories, we could see a new generation inspired to become scientists. Science will get us out of a lockdown that technology made possible.
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