Author: David Canter

Professor David Canter, the internationally renowned applied social researcher and world-leading crime psychologist, is perhaps most widely known as one of the pioneers of "Offender Profiling" being the first to introduce its use to the UK.

How Social Science Can Hurt Those It Loves
Ethics
June 4, 2024

How Social Science Can Hurt Those It Loves

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The Long Arm of Criminality
Opinion
April 29, 2024

The Long Arm of Criminality

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The Fog of War
Insights
April 12, 2024

The Fog of War

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Why Don’t Algorithms Agree With Each Other?
Innovation
February 21, 2024

Why Don’t Algorithms Agree With Each Other?

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Did Turing Miss the Point? Should He Have Thought of the Limerick Test?

Did Turing Miss the Point? Should He Have Thought of the Limerick Test?

David Canter is horrified by the power of readily available large language technology.

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Musical Ways of Knowing

Musical Ways of Knowing

Our long-time blogger David Canter considers what he has learned while completing his PhD in music composition. He spent a lifetime as a social scientist, requiring every argument to be bolstered by some form of empirical evidence, or at least a supportive citation from the works of others. The contrast of developing an approach to composing music that can be regarded as ‘a contribution to knowledge’, has made him aware that there are many ways of knowing which scientists, especially social scientists and psychologists, ignore at their peril.

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Do We Need the Police?

Do We Need the Police?

David Canter considers whether ‘all-purpose’ police forces a no longer fit for purpose.

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The Trouble with Bootlaces: Treading on Artificial and General Intelligence

The Trouble with Bootlaces: Treading on Artificial and General Intelligence

David Canter considers some implications of ChatGPT and what it tells us about real intelligence, general, artificial or otherwise.

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When Ignorance is Reassuring

When Ignorance is Reassuring

David Canter considers the strange phenomena of Russians believing Putin’s propaganda.

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How Does Putin Think?

How Does Putin Think?

David Canter considers the sorts of psychological processes that may be shaping Vladimir Putin’s actions.

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The Robot Will See You Now

The Robot Will See You Now

David Canter follows his concern that psychologists are losing contact with people by considering how computers are presented as replacements for human ‘intelligence’. This ignores the importance of in situ person to person contact, which has been shown by the COVID pandemic to be so crucial for people.

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Are Other People Hell?

Are Other People Hell?

David Canter discusses the alienation between people that is being generated by a combination of fears of interpersonal contact and the power of the internet. Is a new world emerging in which isolated avatars replace social interaction?

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