My research is designed to uncover the relationship between curiosity and two factors with positive correlation to good decision making. These two factors—farsighted thinking and strict information quality standards—are tied to several of the concepts covered in IS 291B. I will address three of these concepts—objectivity defined by epistemic virtues, social constructivism of technological paradigms, and design as a reflection of cultural knowledge—that not only will affect the criteria by which information provided in my research study will be assessed, but also the design of how this information will be presented.
As a review, I shall define the three concepts in the context of technological development.
Concepts from the course that are particularly relevant to the design of my research project are prominent in the works of Eglash, Daston and Galison, Pickering, and Sterne. I will briefly identify how each author elucidates a particular concept with regard to the formulation of expectations for what is considered the “true” representation of the real world, as well as the underlying societal forces that shaped the representation.
Ron Eglash tackled widespread assumptions about the motivations behind African design by asserting that the designs (as seen in fashion, architecture, ceramics, village layout, and other elements of everyday life) are evidence of sophisticated fractal mathematics, not simply a close relationship with nature. Thus, the norms of the societies where fractal design is evident reveal much about the way the people viewed, interpreted, and represented the world. Taking the perspective that design reflects cultural knowledge (mathematical and otherwise), I think I would learn more about the sense of what is trustworthy or what seems right in the collective consciousness of a society. In other words, the way subjects go about searching for information, evaluating it against a set of criteria, and making a decision not only will provide an opportunity to test whether curiosity can be instigated and what effects that would have, but also a glimpse into the societal forces that shape subjects’ perception of what it means to be trustworthy and what temporal mindset is typical of their society.
For example, if I were to observe the building of the village in TKTK, I would gain insight into how the recursive replication of a pattern at increasing scales embodies the epistemic values and understanding of the society. The smallest homes located on the outskirts of the village denote socio-economic class structure. The altar in the leader’s home demonstrates the centrality of religious life in the tribe. This makes perfect sense to the community because the design method is based on the collective subjectivity of the society. Those who are within the community that created the standard perceive this design standard as precisely how it should be done. Further, the replication of the fractal designs reinforces the aesthetic as the way it should be done—it validates and perpetuates the expectations of the community. [tktktk find a quote]. This understanding of how the world should be represented establishes the standards by which individuals—if they endeavor to be objective—measure appropriateness and quality. Of course, the standards have been socially constructed and, upon wide acceptance, attain the status of objective measurement.
Daston and Galison have the explicit goal of linking the ideal representation of the real world in atlases—repositories of knowledge—over time. “Atlases set standards for how phenomena are to be seen and depicted.” (Daston and Galison, 19) Societal forces perpetually transform the criteria by which representations of the natural world are deemed objective, and the institutionalized, standardized representation reinforces the socially constructed ideal. Thus, Daston and Gallison demonstrate how objectivity is defined by way of collective societal subjectivity.
Much of their analysis focuses on the decision making involved in what scientists present as truth, given the expectations in the social context of the time. For example, during the period when truth-to-nature was au currant, the scientist bore the responsibility of creating the ideal representation of natural phenomena. To do so, the scientist employed his own judgment to determine what should be considered an ideal representation, and what accidental outliers should be excluded from the body of scientific knowledge. The ideal representation of reality was constructed from the features that were constantly observed. In other words, for each atlas entry, the scientist filtered empirical evidence to exclude outliers and depict and ideal version of the phenomenon.
For example, [religious influence on atlas depiction; use of technology influence on atlas depiction] Just as the expectations for representation of reality were redefined by the qualities of technology that society deemed an improvement over other ways of depicting reality, Sterne provides a historiography of the transformation of compressed sound storage and playback. Sterne explains in detail how various social values influenced the emergence and ubiquity of the MP3 format. The meaning of a format, in Sterne’s view, embodies the market-related, religious, ethical, technological, creation, and end-user values of the collective society.
For example, [users want mobility, creators want credit/money, manufacturers want ability to play back on new technology, artists want moral vindication, etc. ] Of course, the ubiquitous format is not necessarily (or even often) most technologically superior, moral/altruistic, convenient, democratic, cost-efficient, environmentally sustainable, aesthetically pleasing, or otherwise beneficial. The MP3 is not the most TKTK representation of sound. Rather, it is a collectively constructed compromise that possesses attributes that are important to different stakeholder groups.
Consequently, the society as a whole becomes accustomed to the compromised format and the ubiquity of the format reinforces the values and priorities that shaped its embodimenttktk?. In other words, people settle on an acceptable representation of reality; this is called satisficing. Subsequently, the use and proliferation of that format makes it seem even more like the way reality should be represented.
This cyclical reinforcement can be thought of as a sort of recursiveness: the way nature is depicted is replicated at every scale because it becomes recognized as “the go of things.” (CyberneticsTKTK)
The three authors highlight manifestations of this phenomenon of information representation in three very different arenas. Eglash uncovers the influence of certain societies’ fractally oriented way of seeing the world on its design, architecture, fashion, and social organization. The fractal orientation is the society’s collective aesthetic sensibility, just as the symmetric, Euclidean orientation is Western society’s collective aesthetic sensibility. {thesaurus, ple TKTK}
Daston and Gallison explain how societies’ perpetually shifting values affect the way people think about criteria for representation of nature and the manifestation of these expected virtues in atlas imagery. TKTKTK
Sterne takes up the same theme, tracing the trajectory of sound recording and playback over time to explain what the MP3 format represents in terms of the collective societal understanding of sound storage and reproduction. {tktktkt}
These historical explanations of how objectivity is necessarily socially constructed (and, therefore, subjective despite efforts not to be) can be seen in any context. In the context of my own research, social construction of criteria by which people assess trustworthiness of information and outlook for long-term consequences is clearly evident. “Objective” decision making is measured by one’s choice of action to achieve a goal or set of goals, and is, therefore, subjective in terms of societal (and biological) preferences for efficiency, pleasure, relief from uncertainty, profit, ease, and other qualities considered beneficial. However, this set of standards by which the decision is judged is ubiquitous and considered to be the objective method of good decision making. Decisions are expected to maximize reward and minimize punishment—and those rewards and punishments can only be judged as positive or negative based on the society’s epistemological values.
Several aspects of my research are informed by this concept. A brief description of my study is warranted. I am interested in the role curiosity plays in the cultivation of two factors that have been shown to influence decision making. These factors—temporal mindset and information quality—have been shown to correlate positively with curiosity, as well as with good decision making. In addition curiosity is positively correlated with decision making. However, the interrelatedness of the three decision-making factors has not been studies. I propose the test of a model to establish whether a relationship exists between curiosity and farsighted thinking and/or curiosity and high standards of information quality as drivers of good decision making. The Factor Relationship Framework will test for such causal relationships and provide opportunities for further research into other good-decision-making determinant relationships.
There are at least three ways in which my research is shaped by the collective societal expectations addressed by Eglash, Daston and Gallison, and Sterne. First, the very definition of good decision making evolved over time as a result of society’s shifting beliefs and values with regard to optimization. [history of gdm definition from moral to econ to behavioral]TKTKT
Second, the leveraging of subjects’ curiosity is a result of the filtering of noise to define what is important and desirable in the decision making process, as well as in temporal mindset and information quality. For example, [trusted sources, evolution of accuracy and reliability of Wikipedia (Fallis), and trust thresholds, all influenced by ubiquitous nature of the Internet as the method of information dissemination. Here, too, the format is not the most TKTKTKTKT. Rather, the Internet represents the collective societal subjectivity that shapes the definition of ideal information medium at any given time.
Third, the ways in which subjects assign value to information will influence the methods employed to conduct my research. For example, if I were researching curiosity, temporal mindset, and information quality in relation to decision making in the 1950s (as Laswell, Berlyne, Mintzberg, and Simon were), I would be using a different project design and methodology. There was no Internet, but a different sort of network for information retrieval was in place and considered “the go of things:” TKTKTKTK.
The ways I could measure activation of curiosity would also be different. No fMRI—which today is considered ti be the best method to represent physiological response to stimuli. In the 1950s, researchers would have to rely on qualitative methods such as facial expression observation. [[name studies that were this way]]]. Research had to rely on subjective observation. [fmri is subjective, too, but the truth thresholds associated with information assessment have changed as society has increased trust in this type of data. Therefore, such evidence is accorded greater value.

What is considered the acceptable, trustworthy, accurate way to represent objective reality is, in actuality, shaped by the collective subjectivity of society. In addition, as values evolve/change, so does society’s definition of what it means to be objective.

Noise filtering is a common theme across the authors’ explanations, as well as my research. The decisions involved in determining what is important to include in the representation of reality and what can be sacrificed for the sake of efficiency, mobility, or some other benefit are informed by the standards for objective evaluation. Of course, those standards are created by the priorities, values, and beliefs of the society. Therefore, subjective evaluation determines prioritization of represented attributes, which perpetuates the expectation that the criteria inherent in the subjective evaluation are the “right” attributes by which one should ascribe value.
The concept of noise filtering applies to my research in the ways people evaluate trustworthiness and time horizon are influenced by the expectations resulting from their societally determined view of reality. And this view seems objective because it’s defined as such. In actuality, however, it is the collective subjectivity of the society that results from prioritizing certain attributes and excluding others.

After the publication of Thomas Kuhn's well-known The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), which attributed changes in scientific theories to changes in underlying intellectual paradigms, programs were founded at the University of California, Berkeley and elsewhere that brought historians of science and philosophers together in unified programs.
Another science and technology concept was explored initially by Thomas Kuhn. He asserted that changes in scientific theories were caused by shifting intellectual paradigms. In other words, TKTKTK.
This view of the history and philosophy of science relates to my research in a subtle way. The manner in which I intend to leverage curiosity with study participants is by “priming” them with different information prior to making a decision. The scientific paradigm shifts Kuhn explained derive from changes in how people understand and define natural phenomena. Information necessarily precedes such shifts.
For example, people believed the world was flat until they were presented with information that met their criteria for proof—their truth thresholds—and embraced a new way of conceiving the nature of the world: spherical. Galileo had to [jump through hoops how did he persuade?TKTK] Similarly, we know that humans tend to act based on shortsighted thinking. We are satisficing creatures who prefer short-term gains over long-term payoffs, even when the farsighted choice is in our best interest. My experiment is designed to present information that will orient the decision maker toward thinking about long-term consequences and trustworthiness of information. Creating intentional gaps in subjects’ knowledge causes a physiological, cognitive uneasiness in them that I hypothesize will cause decision makers to seek information that will reconcile the knowledge gap. In the process, subjects are primed to think in a way that will improve their ability to make decisions that are more beneficial than those made in the absence of farsighted thinking and strict standards for information quality.

My research is designed to uncover the relationship between curiosity and two factors with positive correlation to good decision making. These two factors—farsighted thinking and strict information quality standards—are tied to several of the concepts covered in IS 291B. I will address one of these concepts as it manifests in the works of several of the authors we studied. Though the characterizations of the concept are semantically variant (objectivity defined by epistemic virtues, social constructivism of technological paradigms, and design as a reflection of cultural knowledge), the same underlying theme is evident. The contributions of these authors to the understanding of what it means to make rational decisions not only will affect the criteria by which information provided in my research study will be assessed, but also the design of how this information will be presented. The discussion of these concepts exists in the context of bounded rationality.
In this paper, I define the rational decision making in the context of technological development. Then I discuss how the authors demonstrate the creation and implementation of objective standards and how bounded rationality affects the socially constructed definition of objectivity. I briefly identify how each author elucidates a particular facet of the concept with regard to the formulation of expectations for what is considered the “true” representation of the real world, as well as the underlying societal forces that shaped the representation. Finally, I explain how these ideas will influence the theory and method employed in my research on curiosity, farsighted thinking, and information quality in the decision-making process.

Objectivity and epistemic virtues
Though it would be helpful to offer here a discrete definition of objectivity, Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison demonstrate in Objectivity that the meaning of the term changes over time, according to shifting epistemic virtues. The authors have the explicit goal of linking the ideal representation of the real world in atlases—repositories of knowledge—over time. “Atlases set standards for how phenomena are to be seen and depicted.” (Daston and Galison, 19) Societal forces perpetually transform the criteria by which representations of the natural world are deemed objective, and the institutionalized, standardized representation reinforces the socially constructed ideal. Thus, Daston and Gallison demonstrate how objectivity is defined by way of collective societal subjectivity.
Much of their analysis focuses on the decision making involved in what scientists present as truth, given the expectations in the social context of the time. For example, during the period when truth-to-nature was au currant, the scientist bore the responsibility of creating the ideal representation of natural phenomena. To do so, the scientist employed his own judgment to determine what should be considered an ideal representation, and what accidental outliers should be excluded from the body of scientific knowledge. The ideal representation of reality was constructed from the features that were constantly observed. In other words, for each atlas entry, the scientist filtered empirical evidence to exclude outliers and depict an ideal version of the phenomenon. (This exclusion of outliers is similar to the noise abatement discussed by Sterne in reference to sound compression and Eglash with regard to 1/F noise, which are addressed later.)
Throughout the text, Daston and Galison analyze the changing standards of scientific proof and resultant approaches to representation of natural phenomena and their effects on the scientific self. They “have chosen to tell the history of scientific objectivity through pictures drawn from the long tradition of scientific atlases, those select collections of images that identify a discipline’s most significant objects of inquiry.” (Daston and Galison, 17) For example, when [religious influence on atlas depiction; use of technology influence on atlas depiction]

Ron Eglash, too, explains in African Fractals how the definition of objectivity—the right way of looking at things—is defined by epistemic virtues. He shows how mathematical and cultural knowledge and expectations manifest in society’s concept of objectivity.
Eglash tackled widespread assumptions about the motivations behind African design by asserting that the designs (as seen in fashion, architecture, ceramics, village layout, and other elements of everyday life) are evidence of sophisticated fractal mathematics, not simply a close relationship with nature. Thus, the norms of the societies where fractal design is evident reveal much about the way the people viewed, interpreted, and represented the world.
For example, if I were to observe the building of the Nkong-mondo quarter in the city of Edea in southern Cameroon, I would gain insight into how the recursive replication of a pattern at increasing scales embodies the epistemic values and understanding of the society. The smallest homes located on the outskirts of the village denote socio-economic class structure. The altar in the leader’s home demonstrates the centrality of religious life in the tribe. This makes perfect sense to the community because the design method is based on the collective subjectivity of the society. Those who are within the community that created the standard perceive this design standard as precisely how it should be done. Further, the replication of the fractal designs reinforces the aesthetic as the way it should be done—it validates and perpetuates the expectations of the community. [tktktk find a quote]. This understanding of how the world should be represented establishes the standards by which individuals—if they endeavor to be objective—measure appropriateness and quality. Of course, the standards have been socially constructed and, upon wide acceptance, attain the status of objective measurement.
Just as the expectations for representation of reality were redefined by the qualities of technology that society deemed an improvement over other ways of depicting reality, Sterne provides a history of the transformation of compressed sound storage and playback to explain how technological formats come to be. Sterne explains in detail how various social values influenced the emergence and ubiquity of the MP3 format. The meaning of a format, in Sterne’s view, embodies the market-related, religious, ethical, technological, creative, and end-user values of the collective society.
For example, [users want mobility, creators want credit/money, manufacturers want ability to play back on new technology, artists want moral vindication, etc. ] Of course, the ubiquitous format is not necessarily (or even often) most technologically superior, moral/altruistic, convenient, democratic, cost-efficient, environmentally sustainable, aesthetically pleasing, or otherwise beneficial. The MP3 is not the most high-fidelity representation of sound. Rather, it is a collectively constructed compromise that possesses attributes that are important to different stakeholder groups.
Consequently, the society as a whole becomes accustomed to the compromised format and the ubiquity of the format reinforces the values and priorities that shaped it. In other words, people settle on an acceptable representation of reality; this is called satisficing. Subsequently, the use and proliferation of that format makes it seem even more like the way reality should be represented.
This cyclical reinforcement can be thought of as a sort of recursiveness: the way nature is depicted is replicated at every scale because it becomes recognized as “the go of things.” (CyberneticsTKTK) And this recursiveness is reminiscent of Eglash’s fractal design concept. TKTK
The three authors highlight manifestations of this phenomenon of information representation in three very different arenas. Eglash uncovers the influence of certain societies’ fractally oriented way of seeing the world on its design, architecture, fashion, and social organization. The fractal orientation is the society’s collective aesthetic sensibility, just as the symmetric, Euclidean orientation is Western society’s collective aesthetic sensibility. {thesaurus, ple TKTK}
Daston and Galison delve into how the concept of objectivity changes over time and what this shifting definition means for the scientific self.
Daston and Gallison explain how societies’ perpetually shifting values affect the way people think about criteria for representation of nature and the manifestation of these expected virtues in atlas imagery. TKTKTK
Sterne takes up the same theme, tracing the trajectory of sound recording and playback over time to explain what the MP3 format represents in terms of the collective societal understanding of sound storage and reproduction. {tktktkt}
These historical explanations of how objectivity is necessarily socially constructed (and, therefore, subjective despite efforts not to be) can be seen in any context. In the context of my own research, social construction of criteria by which people assess trustworthiness of information and outlook for long-term consequences is clearly evident. “Objective” decision making is measured by one’s choice of action to achieve a goal or set of goals, and is, therefore, subjective in terms of societal (and biological) preferences for efficiency, pleasure, relief from uncertainty, profit, ease, and other qualities considered beneficial. However, this set of standards by which the decision is judged is ubiquitous and considered to be the objective method of good decision making. Decisions are expected to maximize reward and minimize punishment—and those rewards and punishments can only be judged as positive or negative based on the society’s epistemological values. “Hindsight is 20/20” is an interesting social acknowledgement of this phenomenon. With certainty of consequences, complete information, and enough computational power to deal with complexity, one has the ability to make a perfectly rational decision. Decision making is not perfectly rational, as utility theory would imply. Rather, decision making is limited; this is called bounded rationality.
Coined by Herbert Simon in his 1982 book, Models of Bounded Rationality and Other Topics in Economics, bounded rationality posits that there are three limits on perfect rationality: uncertainty about the consequences of each possible alternative, incomplete information about the set of possible alternatives, and computational complexity. Rational decision making is based on economic utility theory and does not account for cognitive influences in the decision-making process. Bounded rationality injects instability into the process, which is creates a more sccurate simulation of the decision-making process. James Gleick’s description of chaos theory relates to this idea in that the concept of chaos is the opposite of a lack of information. Chaos represents the presence of information and of the (REFER TO CHAOS)

Uncertainty of consequences

Incomplete information

Several aspects of my research are informed by this concept. A brief description of my study is warranted. I am interested in the role curiosity plays in the cultivation of two factors that have been shown to influence decision making. These factors—temporal mindset and information quality—have been shown to correlate positively with curiosity, as well as with good decision making. In addition curiosity is positively correlated with decision making. However, the interrelatedness of the three decision-making factors has not been studies. I propose the test of a model to establish whether a relationship exists between curiosity and farsighted thinking and/or curiosity and high standards of information quality as drivers of good decision making. The Factor Relationship Framework will test for such causal relationships and provide opportunities for further research into other good-decision-making determinant relationships.
There are at least three ways in which my research is shaped by the collective societal expectations addressed by Eglash, Daston and Gallison, and Sterne. First, the very definition of good decision making evolved over time as a result of society’s shifting beliefs and values with regard to optimization. [history of gdm definition from moral to econ to behavioral]TKTKT
Second, the leveraging of subjects’ curiosity is a result of the filtering of noise to define what is important and desirable in the decision making process, as well as in temporal mindset and information quality. For example, [trusted sources, evolution of accuracy and reliability of Wikipedia (Fallis), and trust thresholds, all influenced by ubiquitous nature of the Internet as the method of information dissemination. Here, too, the format is not the most TKTKTKTKT. Rather, the Internet represents the collective societal subjectivity that shapes the definition of ideal information medium at any given time.
Third, the ways in which subjects assign value to information will influence the methods employed to conduct my research. For example, if I were researching curiosity, temporal mindset, and information quality in relation to decision making in the 1950s (as Laswell, Berlyne, Mintzberg, and Simon were), I would be using a different project design and methodology. There was no Internet, but a different sort of network for information retrieval was in place and considered “the go of things:” TKTKTKTK.
The ways I could measure activation of curiosity would also be different. No fMRI—which today is considered ti be the best method to represent physiological response to stimuli. In the 1950s, researchers would have to rely on qualitative methods such as facial expression observation. [[name studies that were this way]]]. Research had to rely on subjective observation. [fmri is subjective, too, but the truth thresholds associated with information assessment have changed as society has increased trust in this type of data. Therefore, such evidence is accorded greater value.

What is considered the acceptable, trustworthy, accurate way to represent objective reality is, in actuality, shaped by the collective subjectivity of society. In addition, as values evolve/change, so does society’s definition of what it means to be objective.

Noise filtering is a common theme across the authors’ explanations, and is highly relevant to my research. The decisions involved in determining what is important to include in the representation of reality and what can be sacrificed for the sake of efficiency, mobility, or some other benefit are informed by the standards for objective evaluation. Of course, those standards are created by the priorities, values, and beliefs of the society. Therefore, subjective evaluation determines prioritization of represented attributes, which perpetuates the expectation that the criteria inherent in the subjective evaluation are the “right” attributes by which one should ascribe value.
The concept of noise filtering applies to my research in the ways people evaluate trustworthiness and time horizon are influenced by the expectations resulting from their societally determined view of reality. And this view seems objective because it’s defined as such. In actuality, however, it is the collective subjectivity of the society that results from prioritizing certain attributes and excluding others.

Another science and technology concept was explored initially by Thomas Kuhn. He asserted that changes in scientific theories were caused by shifting intellectual paradigms. In other words, TKTKTK.
This view of the history and philosophy of science relates to my research in a subtle way. The manner in which I intend to leverage curiosity with study participants is by “priming” them with different information prior to making a decision. The scientific paradigm shifts Kuhn explained derive from changes in how people understand and define natural phenomena. Information necessarily precedes such shifts.
For example, people believed the world was flat until they were presented with information that met their criteria for proof—their truth thresholds—and embraced a new way of conceiving the nature of the world: spherical. Galileo had to [jump through hoops how did he persuade?TKTK] Similarly, we know that humans tend to act based on shortsighted thinking. We are satisficing creatures who prefer short-term gains over long-term payoffs, even when the farsighted choice is in our best interest. My experiment is designed to present information that will orient the decision maker toward thinking about long-term consequences and trustworthiness of information. Creating intentional gaps in subjects’ knowledge causes a physiological, cognitive uneasiness in them that I hypothesize will cause decision makers to seek information that will reconcile the knowledge gap. In the process, subjects are primed to think in a way that will improve their ability to make decisions that are more beneficial than those made in the absence of farsighted thinking and strict standards for information quality.

Objectivity and my research
I focus on the authors’ study of scientific atlases “because atlases set the standards for how phenomena are to be seen and depicted.” (Daston and Galison, 19)