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Please join us on Tuesday, May 5th from 4:00pm-5:15pm for a talk on The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us, by Benjamin Recht, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley.Recht will be joined in conversation with Marion Fourcade, Professor of Sociology and Director of Social Science Matrix.
Abstract
Mathematicians and engineers of the 1940s set out to design machines that could act as ideal rational agents in the face of uncertainty. In this pursuit, a cluster of foundational mathematical technologies — including information theory, linear programming, game theory, and neural networks — emerged as a foundation for a mathematical formalization of rationality, reshaping how we think about human decision-making itself. The Irrational Decision traces how a narrow mathematical framework for computing came to define rationality in economics, public policy, and popular culture.
Recht’s talk will discuss how these seminal computational methods have evolved into a robust discipline and industry, with success stories in accelerating computers, regulating pharmaceuticals, and deploying electronic commerce. These examples will highlight how automated decision systems excel in specific sweet spots with clear rules, well-defined goals, and well-constrained contexts. They will also show how, outside these narrow contexts, the rational program tends to absurdity. Given these strengths and limitations, the discussion will explore how to best harness 80 years of unfathomable computational progress while preserving human agency and judgment.
About the Author
Benjamin Recht is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. He is the recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the 2012 SIAM/MOS Lagrange Prize in Continuous Optimization, the 2014 Jamon Prize, the 2015 William O. Baker Award for Initiatives in Research, and the 2017 and 2020 NeurIPS Test of Time Awards. He is the author of three books: Optimization for Modern Data Analysis (2022), with Stephen J. Wright; Patterns, Predictions, and Actions: Foundations of Machine Learning (2022), with Moritz Hardt; and The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us (2026).
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