It’s incredibly hard to read Dominic Cummings’ blog post without wondering what his everyday life must be about. What he reads, who he hangs out with, who he goes surfing/golfing with will help create a world view where Peter Thiel is a reference and machine learning can help civil service keep things ticking along for the rest of us. So the least I could do is offer some better reading suggestions. Something a misfit would do surely. This is what I sent over, with links:
January 3rd 2020
Mr. Cummings,
Here is some suggested reading in light of your recent blog post:
- Laboratory Lifestyles, The Construction of Scientific Fictions, S. Kaji-O’Grady, MIT Press, 2019
- The Tyranny of Metrics, J. Muller, Princeton University Press, 2018.
- Counterproductive, M. Gregg, Duke University Press, 2018
- Constructing the Cold War Environment: The Strategic Architecture of RAND, M. Kubo, Self-published, 2009
- Buildings and Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern Building Types, T. Markus, Routledge, 1993
- The Global Village, M. Mcluhan, Oxford University Press, 1992
- Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, N. Postman, Vintage, 1992
- Managing the Flow of Technology, T. Allen, MIT Press, 1977
As a citizen of nowhere living and working in our great capital, I wanted to share these references to help you and your team examine the other side of your argument and approach when it comes to bringing technology into public services.
I wish you luck and hope at the very least you can get better biscuits into Downing Street.
Warm regards and Happy New Year!