Such an interesting perspective, Pedro! I really liked your comment about how we as humans compared the most advanced technology to that of our brains and how that reflects how "self-important" and powerful we perceive our species to be over others. Your comment made me think a lot about all of this, and I think that it adds a lot to this conversation on how humans innovate and to what standards do we evaluate these innovations.

Hi Julie! What an interesting topic to focus on. I think that you made a great connection to what Susan Murphy said in the interview about personal vs societal prediction. It is interesting to think about the intersections between genetic testing predictions and basic health predictions like stress that Murphy mentions in the interview. I think that you provide some great insight into this conversation and I am excited to learn more about your project!

I found this essay very engaging and provided the reader with commentary and discussion that could be more easily digested than trying to interpret lots of statistics and quantitative evidence about this subject. Personally, I would consider myself a non-quantitatively-inclined reader and find that my best understanding of topics comes from broken down discussion and interpretation that is focused on the topic rather than trying to interpret all of the numbers that support that topic. In this essay, I appreciated the lens that deconstructed the complexities of these ideas; even in the first paragraph, there was a quote from a famous movie that one might know and then some explanation that was connected to common known activities like hunting and Russian roulette. From that point, I already had a better grasp of the knowledge trying to be conveyed than if I had tried to read a daunting quantitatively focused essay. The fact that the Deer Hunter Russian Roulette story returned to the conversation to describe the differences in uncertainty and risk which was also very illuminating and grounded my understanding. The reader is then able to connect the examples at the beginning of the essay to how it all relates to COVID-19 and epidemiology, which was a great way to help the reader to best understand the basics of risk and uncertainty and then more easily apply it to their uptake of this knowledge surrounding the current pandemic.

Great connections, Cici! I enjoyed reading your post, and I also took note of this idea of the importance of usefulness/practicality of knowledge outside of just accurately predicting while watching this interview. I really liked your point about the almost limitless connections that we can make when we combine our predictions with our knowledge of theory to turn an accurate prediction model into a tool to apply and connect to other subjects or ideas. Thank you for highlighting this in your post!

Interesting comments, Lauren! I especially thought that your picture was very insightful and creative. It made me think a lot about this topic and how it connects to human behaviors such as creativity and self-expression as well from the image you shared. The conversation that you highlighted about determinism in this field was also very interesting and insightful because, as you mentioned, although our predictions can never be entirely certain, there still remain elements of determinism. I really thought that you question of how do scientists/economist/scholars work around this and utilize this challenge to possible reach "the horizon of predictability" like how you connected to the Path to Newton (another great class connection) to be very thought-provoking as well.

Wonderful questions, Lauren! I also watched the De Vivo and Kraft interview. I had some questions about how to better use prediction as a tool to aid us in better understanding genetics, predisposition to diseases, and ultimately understanding how one's environment influences can influence their susceptibility and prognosis outcomes. Your question is really interesting because although epidemiologists are constantly studying viruses/diseases and how they spread, something like COVID-19 was not widely mentioned or of concern to the public until it was too late to really slow the spread. I also wonder if there will be/ to what extent will there be even more planning and preparation on a structural and preparedness level to be able to better predict and anticipate an event like COVID-19 in the future.

This is a very interesting point to bring up, Gavin. I also watched the Kammen interview but did not think about his discussion of recycling in this way. I agree that it would be very interesting to get his perspective on recycling more than just metals, given the difficulty and economic and environmental costs it can take to recycle even a small amount of PET. The general public seems to thinks that recycling is a very simple task that helps to deescalate the negative effects of climate change. Yet, in practice, there are a lot of variables around recycling that add up, as you mentioned in your post. This was super thought-provoking because it is instinct to think that all recycling is good for the environment, but is it?