Connected by Climate

Connected by Climate

                  In A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming¹, Paul Edwards tackles the topic of global knowledge using the climate as his example. He begins by using the common phrase, “think globally, act locally” (Edwards 1). By this, Edwards means that our local actions impact the world and what’s happening around the world impacts us locally, in other words we are an “interconnected whole” (1).  To provide an example, Edward uses climate to address the complex task of identifying and sharing knowledge. It is fitting that he chooses “climate” to talk about people being connected since, according to the Oxford Dictionary Online¹, climate’s suffix “mate” can be defined as a as a noun that means, “a fellow member or joint occupant of a specified thing” and as a verb that means, “connect or be connected mechanically.”  Furthermore, as Edwards says toward the end of the first chapter, the weather data network “is arguably the oldest of all systems for producing globalist information” (Edwards 24). Climate is a great example to use because its suffix not only means connection, but the study of it is one of the first world-wide attempts to form unified knowledge.

            As Edwards discusses, knowledge formation does not begin with communicating information. Knowledge begins with assembling data, which includes knowing how to identify data and also having tools to accurately capture and assess that data. In the case of climate, each country uses different measurements, the tools they use change over time, and even where the data is connected changes. All this results in differences from data collected 150 years ago and even data collected 20 years ago (6).  This is where the concept of a “vast machine” is introduced. A vast machine is “a sociotechnical system that collects data, models physical processes, tests theories, and ultimately generates a widely shared understanding” (8).  Data and observations must be transformed into widely accepted knowledge which includes the political process, transmission of information via the media, and even an understanding of what counts as data.

                  Since we’ve mentioned that data varies, it is important to have “reanalysis,” which is a technique that helps standardize data previously collected, even when collected at different times by different methods. There is also the concept of “gateways” which “can join previously incompatible systems” (10). In the case of climate, this allows weather systems to interact with the ocean monitoring systems, seismographs, and more.  “Knowledge infrastructures comprise robust networks of people, artifacts, and institutions that generate, share, and maintain specific knowledge about the human and natural worlds” (17).  These knowledge infrastructures are sociotechnical because people don’t just add facts. They must assimilate the facts they have, which is akin to the basics of scientific knowledge. To do so, the information presented must be consistent with other things people know. Plus, the new information must be accepted within a community and the person providing the information must have trust and authority. Scientific knowledge is therefore communicated through many infrastructures and institutions including universities, libraries, and laboratories.  “The infrastructure is a production, communication, storage and maintenance web with both social and technical dimensions” (18). Infrastructures are largely invisible until they no longer work. For instance, one may not pay attention to the infrastructure of roads, highways, and traffic lights until the traffic lights don’t work and as a result, traffic no longer flows smoothly and the number of accidents increase.

            Globalist information occurs when the knowledge transcends into a political contect and nations begin working together to create change. “It may be driven by believes about what knowledge can offer to science or society” (25) and creates a world-wide infrastructure of knowledge formation and transmission. With countless examples related to climate, capturing and analyzing climate data, and organizations that study climate, A Vast Machine explains how knowledge is formed and how it is then communicated, not just locally, but globally, influencing people everywhere.

²Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Accessed at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/mate

¹Edwards, Paul. A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. MIT Press: 2010.