278 | Kieran Healy on the Technology of Ranking People

<p>We claim to love all of our children, friends, and students equally. But perhaps deep down you assign a ranking to them, from favorite to not-so-favorite. Ranking and quantifying people is an irresistible human tendency, and modern technology has made it ubiquitous. In this episode I talk with sociologist Kieran Healy, who has co-authored (with <a href="http://www.marionfourcade.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marion Fourcade</a>) the new book <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674971141" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Ordinal Society</em></a>, about how our lives are measured and processed by the technological ecosystem around us. We discuss how this has changed how relate to ourselves and the wider world.</p> <p>S<em>upport Mindscape on </em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/06/10/278-kieran-healy-on-the-technology-of-ranking-people/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/06/10/278-kieran-healy-on-the-technology-of-ranking-people/</a></p> <p>Kieran Healy received his Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University. He is currently a professor of sociology at Duke University, and a member of the Kenan Institute for Ethics. As an undergraduate at University College Cork he won the Irish Times National Debating competition. He has a longstanding interest in <a href="https://kieranhealy.org/publications/dataviz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">data visualization</a>.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://kieranhealy.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web site</a></li> <li><a href="https://sociology.duke.edu/kieran-healy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Duke web page</a></li> <li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YWEuPuIAAAAJ&amp;hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Scholar publications</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kieran_Healy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li> </ul> <p><br /></p>