What is a Philosopher Doing in an Analytics Company?

by Alberto D. Horner Jr. Data Engineer

I am a philosopher and I have recently joined Ventagium Data Consulting as a Data Engineer. A common stereotype depicts philosophers as idealistic people far apart from pragmatic and worldly concerns.? There are other kinds of philosophers, though. Logic, which is the study of good reasoning, is a branch of philosophy. Being realistic is a philosophical stance and the will to enrich society the best you can, with the gifts you have, is a natural fruit of reflections upon ethics.

Logic and Ethics, that’s what led me to fiercely learn what I needed to become an engineer. I would like to explain myself further, with a twofold caveat: my aim is to show how the whole IT sector can be enhanced with other so-called ‘humanistic fields’ (mainly Philosophy and History of technology); my second aim is to suggest to my philosophical pairs that we require science and technical knowledge in order to make our knowledge worthy. Telling my own story is just one of the means I have found to state both assertions.

After finishing my undergraduate studies, I read a book on the History of computing. The title was Computing. A concise History, by Paul E. Ceruzzi (MIT Press, 2012). It enabled me to have a better understanding about how strongly digital technology has molded our societies. Social Media and e-commerce are just tiny pieces of the whole computing structure that permeates our society: WWII was fought with Computer Science (and Physics, obviously) and the big companies and governments have since then relied in computing procedures. Computers have a great ability to build and destroy goods. We better be aware of that.

Ethics of digital technology captured my attention, books like Atlas of AI, Privacy is Power, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and a lot of articles published by The New Yorker and other journalistic magazines and journals. Those readings dwell in great scandals where big tech companies were involved. They warn of serious problems like climate crisis, political injustice, labor conditions, and unacceptable practices with data. Paradoxically, we know that the best way to fight those problems is to use these very same digital tools. There’s no turning back from technology.

While learning about those problems, I noticed that philosophers and sociologists struggle to propose solutions due to their lack of technical knowledge. That spurred my efforts in learning math, statistics and how to code. To advance a solution it is required a huge engineering knowledge that is not needed when you are only (and rightly, perhaps) denouncing.

Technology as such will never be the cause of those geopolitical problems. It is bad technology what we must condemn. Historians, social scientists, journalists, and philosophers are quite skilled at noticing when the bad stuff comes into stage.

Was it hard for me to switch from words to numbers? It was a natural step to switch from logic to programming languages. Every logical proof is a well-functioning program. I am not talking figuratively: there is a result in Programming Languages Theory called the Curry-Howard Correspondence, which states precisely that. What represented an enormous challenge for me was to learn statistics and AI. I studied a Master’s program on Philosophy of Science at UNAM and focused my research on Artificial Intelligence under the supervision of Dr. Francisco Hernández Quiroz, a professor of Computer Science. In addition to the standard courses, I attended seminars and courses on linear algebra, calculus, statistics, and theory of probability. They let me discover a beautiful Weltanschauung.

Statistics gave me something logic could not: formal reasoning under uncertainty. A gray scale. Also, I had the opportunity to listen to lectures on Bayesian and Causal Inference. While doing research on those areas, I discovered that it is possible to have a deeper knowledge than the one available by means of Deep Learning methods. My thesis focuses on that precise idea. Causality matters, it is achievable, and it can be thought of as a gray scale concept. In my research I just tried to contribute in some way to a better understanding of what Judea Pearl and the research project on causality gave to humanity and AI. My research is not yet published, but in the meantime, I can share with you this general introduction I presented at a seminar about causal artificial intelligence.

Fortunately, when I finished the master’s program, I found a place where people pursue a better world by means of better technology. It is called Ventagium Data Consulting . I feel free to say this, since I know firsthand how our services comply with high security, privacy and quality standards. It is also a place where employees, customers and everyone matter as people.

We follow the agile methodology. In 2001, Jim Highsmith, one of the authors of The Agile Manifesto wrote ?At the core, I believe Agile Methodologists are really about "mushy" stuff—about delivering good products to customers by operating in an environment that does more than talk about "people as our most important asset" but actually "acts" as if people were the most important, and lose the word "asset"?. I cannot help matching those lines with Ventagium’s way.

The vision of the company is to enable great decisions in organizations that are in a position to change the world. We are conscious of the power and responsibilities engineers have in our time —perhaps they have always had them and we, humans, are just lately noticing it. An engineer is no longer a simple-minded highly specialized technician who provides one-way solutions. Currently, there are many engineers stepping into philosophy to provide a new characterization about what a contemporary engineer should be. Our decisions impact the lives of lots of people. We must take into account a wider geopolitical context and the long-run effects of their solutions. Digital tools and digital consulting services bring more value if they are designed to endure within a long-term perspective and to empower companies and organizations which will improve the economic and social conditions. Notice what’s happening with the services provided by data scientists and data engineers: while working in a profitable manner, we are providing a highly valuable service to industry and society.

As a philosopher, I can help with taking care of a wider perspective. As an engineer, I can translate that care into good practices with the help and good company of other engineers. Great people I am learning a lot from.

I realized all the good you can bring to society as an engineer along with the fact that my character entirely matches the one you need to work as an engineer (I truly enjoy working with databases and IT systems). I strived to become one. I did. I will not stop being a philosopher, by the way. And I am profoundly happy and thankful that that personal transformation got through at Ventagium Data Consulting .