The History Philosophy Culture
Working Group of the
Next Generation
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
Social science and humanities perspectives on responsible telescope siting, outreach, education, foundations, algorithms, inferences, visualizations, governance structures and knowledge formation in scientific collaborations.
Participants at the ngEHT meeting in Granada, june 2022.
Credit: Marianna Foschi
"In the development of major technical collaborations, it is rare indeed for scientists, philosophers, historians, ethnographers, art historians, and sociologists to have the chance to think together about scientific knowledge as it unfolds. Here we have that possibility, not after the fact, but now, in the course of building instruments, observations, theories, and interpretations of black holes. We are shaping the start of this joint venture; its future to be built and written."
- Peter Galison, coordinator of the HPC working group
News
The HPC White Paper has been published in Galaxies. The paper delineates the activities and future goals of the HPC Working Group. For various highlights, see The Conversation.
Upcoming Events
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The 2nd HPC Workshop (hybrid) will be held in Boston on the 16th of May, directly followed by the annual BHI conference. Registration will open soon.
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Our HPC White Paper will be presented to the Dutch Black Hole Consortium in Amsterdam on the 16th of June.
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Our HPC White Paper will be presented in Munich from 28-31 March.
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Our Planet-sized Integrated Philosophy of Science Symposium at the BSPS conference in Bristol (UK) will take place from 5-7 July.
HPC plenaries
Coordinator: Peter Galison
Every first Wednesday of the month, 11:00 Eastern/ 16:00 UTC
All upcoming plenaries & focus group meetings can be found in the Google calendar.
If you are interested in joining any of the HPC focus groups below,
please send a very brief description of background & interests to n.c.m.martens@uu.nl.
Focus Groups
Foundations
The Foundations focus group complements the Fundamental Physics working group, providing a different, critical lens for thinking about what the ngEHT observations can tell us about fundamental physics. It does so by facilitating ongoing interdisciplinary discussions of foundational issues, primarily through the weekly BHI Foundations Seminar.
Meetings: Every Monday during Harvard term time, 10:00 Eastern/ 15:00 UTC
Contact: jelder@fas.harvard.edu
Group leader: Jamee Elder (philosophy of astrophysics, philosophy of science)
Erik Curiel (foundations of physics)
Jeroen van Dongen (history and philosophy of science)
Connemara Doran (history and philosophy of physics, history of astronomy and cosmology, history of mathematics)
Jonas Enander (science communication)
Klaas Landsman (mathematical physics)
Paula Muhr (image operativity, media studies, STS)
Sebastian Murgueitio Ramirez (philosophy of physics, philosophy of science)
Priya Natarajan (astrophysics)
Lydia Patton (philosophy of science, history and philosophy of science)
Mike Schneider (history and philosophy of cosmology and quantum gravity)
James Owen Weatherall (philosophy of physics, philosophy of science)
Algorithms, Inference & Visualization
Focus group using tools from philosophy of science and art history to better understand sources of bias and long term reliability in computer supported inferences, develop guidelines for new inferential methods, and helping with intentional image presentation.
Meetings: Every second Wednesday of the month, 11:00 Eastern/ 16:00 UTC
Contact: jdobosze@uni-bonn.de
Group leader: Juliusz Doboszewski (philosophy of physics, philosophy of science)
Erik Curiel (foundations and epistemology of physics)
Jeroen van Dongen (history and philosophy of science)
Jamee Elder (philosophy of astrophysics, philosophy of science)
Jonas Enander (science communication)
Marie Gueguen (epistemology/philosophy of astrophysics)
Elizabeth A. Kessler (visual culture, history of science and technology)
Paula Muhr (image operativity, media studies, STS)
Dom Pesce (astrophysics)
Emilie Skulberg (history of black hole visual representations)
Daniel Tapia (astrophysics)
Matt Stanley (history of science)
Responsible Siting
Focus group on general best practices and specific historical, cultural, environmental, and ethical studies in the consideration of new sites joining the ngEHT.
Meetings: Every third Wednesday of the month, 10:00-12:00 Eastern/ 15:00-17:00 UTC
Group leader: Ann C. Thresher (philosophy of science, science ethics, environmental ethics)
Group leader: Daniel Palumbo (astrophysics)
Joyce C. Havstad (philosophy of science and values, research ethics, STS)
Jamee Elder (philosophy of astrophysics, philosophy of science)
Jonas Enander (science communication)
Marie Gueguen (philosophy of astrophysics)
Priya Natarajan (astrophysics)
Hilding Neilson (Indigenous astronomies, Indigenous rights, and research ethics)
Dom Pesce (astrophysics)
Luis Reyes-Galindo (STS, responsible research and innovation)
Elliot Richards (electrical engineering, peace engineering)
Sophie Ritson (history and philosophy of science, research governance)
Daniel Tapia (astrophysics)
Samantha M. Thompson (history of astronomy, technology, the environment)
Bill Vanderburgh (history and philosophy of science)
Collaborations
Focus group on governance structure & social epistemology–discussion of key questions regarding the relationship between the individual member and the collaboration as a whole, including authorship, consensus & diversity of opinion.
Contact: n.c.m.martens@uu.nl
Meetings: Every last Wednesday of the month, 11:00 Eastern/ 16:00 UTC
Group leader: Niels C.M. Martens (philosophy of astronomy)
Siska De Baerdemaeker (history and philosophy of cosmology and astrophysics)
Haixin Dang (social epistemology of science)
Jeroen van Dongen (history and philosophy of science)
Jamee Elder (philosophy of astrophysics, philosophy of science)
Joshua Habgood-Coote (social epistemology)
Roberto Lalli (history of physics, digital humanities)
Alexandru Marcoci (applied decision-making)
Paula Muhr (image operativity, media studies, STS)
Priya Natarajan (astrophysics)
Hilding Neilson (Indigenous astronomies, Indigenous rights, and research ethics)
James Nguyen (philosophy of science)
Vitaly Pronskikh (history & philosophy of science, social epistemology, ethics of science)
Luis Reyes-Galindo (STS, sociology of trust, science communication)
Sophie Ritson (history and philosophy of science, research governance)
Mike Schneider (social dynamics of science)
Emilie Skulberg (history of black hole visual representations)
Helene Sorgner (STS, sociology of science)
Daniel Tapia (astrophysics)
Bill Vanderburgh (history and philosophy of science)
James Owen Weatherall (philosophy of physics, philosophy of science)
Adrian Wüthrich (history and philosophy of modern physics, digital humanities)
Task Forces
Authorship
Developing a protocol for ngEHT authorship, tailored to the specific needs of the various types of members of the ngEHT.
Falls under Collaborations Focus Group
Contact person: Niels Martens
Oral History
Coordinating interviews with ngEHT members, by collecting questions from various HPC projects.
HPC-wide task force
Contact persons: Emilie Skulberg & Jonas Enander
Code of Conduct, Climate & Conflict Resolution (C3)
Developing a Code of Conduct that the whole collaboration stands behind, followed by conclict resolution procedures.
ngEHT-wide task force; includes 3 HPC members
Contact person: Jonathan Weintroub
Dissensus
Systematic analysis of various forms of dissensus, and developing mechanisms for harnessing positive dissensus and disincentivizing negative forms of dissensus.
Falls under Collaborations Focus Group
Contact person: Alexandru Marcoci
Previous Events
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Siting Workshop in November 2022 (online event)
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1st HPC Workshop in February-March 2022
ngEHT director Shep Doeleman
Ann C. Thresher & Peter Galison
Emilie Skulberg
ngEHT director Shep Doeleman
Images from the first HPC Workshop in February-March 2022. Credit: Jamee Elder.
Recent videos
Presenting the HPC working group at the ngEHT conference in Granada in June of 2022.
Imaging & responsible siting at the ngEHT conference in Granada in June of 2022.
More videos can be found on the ngEHT youtube channel.
The HPC working group has no dedicated twitter account, but news is typically disseminated via accounts of some our members:
The HPC webpage is maintained by Jonas Enander and Niels Martens.