CMN 150V: Midterm Questions and
Correct Answers| Latest Update
What is the difference between first and second part of the course?
1st looks at static snapshots of society
2nd looks at changing dynamics
What paradigm underlines "computational science"?
the digital revolution
In the late 1980s, how much of all technology stored info was digital and what
percentage is it now?
less than 1% -> 99%
What does it mean that the amount of technologically stored info "doubles"
every 2-3 years?
each 2-3 years, as much is added to what we have accumulated since the very
beginning
,What more is being documented?
social reality
Did the dna of all human cells store more or less info than digital tech in 2014?
less
What do evolutionary theorists say about the "Major transitions in evolutions"?
every time we (life) came up with a new way of processing info, a major transition
happened
From this social evolutionary perspective, the digital and the biological are
merged when...
society as a whole has become indispensably dependent on digital technology
The Scientific Method
empirical(Darwin)
theoretical(Einstein)
analytical
,The 1st wave of scientific advancements focused on...
a small number of interrelated variables
T or F? Complexity is modeled with simple averages of small number of
interacting variables.
False
Why is it limiting to study society with the dominant scientific methods from the
19th and 20th century?
societies contain more than 2-3 variables and are too comfortable to be modelled
with aggregate averages
When doing social science, we study what levels of abstraction?
networks of people and their technology
How and in reference to what did he use the word "emergence"?
at each of these levels, new rules/laws "emerge" that can be studied
, Who does the anteater(a bear like animal) communicate with in this metaphor?
an ant colony called "Aunt Hillary"
What baffled philosophers like Kant and sociologists like Durkheim?
how predictable social patterns emerge from a bunch of individual free will
What was a main distinction made by both economists like Smith and political
scientists like Rousseau? The distinction between:
the intention of the individual and collective intentions of society
What did the eminent social scientist Karl Marx mean when he talked about
what others called the "basic metaphysical principle of dialectics"?
more of something(quantitative difference) can at some point create unexpected
emergent phenomena(qualitative changes)
All different kinds of social science disciplines are fundamentally interested in
what?
how society emerges from individual parts
Correct Answers| Latest Update
What is the difference between first and second part of the course?
1st looks at static snapshots of society
2nd looks at changing dynamics
What paradigm underlines "computational science"?
the digital revolution
In the late 1980s, how much of all technology stored info was digital and what
percentage is it now?
less than 1% -> 99%
What does it mean that the amount of technologically stored info "doubles"
every 2-3 years?
each 2-3 years, as much is added to what we have accumulated since the very
beginning
,What more is being documented?
social reality
Did the dna of all human cells store more or less info than digital tech in 2014?
less
What do evolutionary theorists say about the "Major transitions in evolutions"?
every time we (life) came up with a new way of processing info, a major transition
happened
From this social evolutionary perspective, the digital and the biological are
merged when...
society as a whole has become indispensably dependent on digital technology
The Scientific Method
empirical(Darwin)
theoretical(Einstein)
analytical
,The 1st wave of scientific advancements focused on...
a small number of interrelated variables
T or F? Complexity is modeled with simple averages of small number of
interacting variables.
False
Why is it limiting to study society with the dominant scientific methods from the
19th and 20th century?
societies contain more than 2-3 variables and are too comfortable to be modelled
with aggregate averages
When doing social science, we study what levels of abstraction?
networks of people and their technology
How and in reference to what did he use the word "emergence"?
at each of these levels, new rules/laws "emerge" that can be studied
, Who does the anteater(a bear like animal) communicate with in this metaphor?
an ant colony called "Aunt Hillary"
What baffled philosophers like Kant and sociologists like Durkheim?
how predictable social patterns emerge from a bunch of individual free will
What was a main distinction made by both economists like Smith and political
scientists like Rousseau? The distinction between:
the intention of the individual and collective intentions of society
What did the eminent social scientist Karl Marx mean when he talked about
what others called the "basic metaphysical principle of dialectics"?
more of something(quantitative difference) can at some point create unexpected
emergent phenomena(qualitative changes)
All different kinds of social science disciplines are fundamentally interested in
what?
how society emerges from individual parts
