AI Applied to Data Science

The use of artificial intelligence to automate and enhance the practice of data science itself. This includes using AI to automatically clean messy datasets, generate features, select the right models, tune hyperparameters, and even write the code for analysis. It's the field where AI becomes the data scientist's assistant, speeding up routine tasks and uncovering patterns that might take humans weeks to find. It's data science turning its tools back on itself.

AI Applied to Data Science Example: "He used to spend 80% of his time cleaning data; now with AI applied to data science, the machine does it for him, and he just focuses on asking the right questions."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Science Power

The recognition that science is not a pure, neutral pursuit of truth, but a form of power in its own right, operating as a distinct sphere of influence alongside politics, economics, and military force. Science power includes the authority to define reality, the control of expertise as a resource, the ability to grant or deny funding, and the gatekeeping of what counts as "knowledge." It's the understanding that who controls the labs, journals, and peer review processes wields as much influence as who controls the army or the treasury.

Example: "They didn't need to censor the research; they just used their science power to deny funding and ensure it never got published in the first place."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Power Science

The systematic study of power itself—its forms, dynamics, sources, and effects—using scientific methods. Unlike philosophy of power, which speculates, power science aims to observe, measure, and model how power operates in human systems. It asks empirical questions: How do power hierarchies form? What predicts the rise and fall of leaders? How does power corrupt, and can we measure that corruption? It's political science, sociology, and psychology focused with laser intensity on the single most important force in human affairs.

Example: "The book wasn't just history; it was power science, offering a data-driven model for how empires actually rise and why they eventually collapse."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Might Science

The study of might, force, strength, and raw capability as distinct from institutional or social power. Where power science looks at control and influence, might science looks at the brute capacity to effect change through sheer force—military strength, physical prowess, economic leverage, or technological superiority. It's the science of who can actually do what, regardless of who has the "right" to do it. It acknowledges that in the end, power often rests on a foundation of might.

Example: "The diplomat had all the soft power in the world, but the general understood might science: when the tanks roll in, charm stops mattering."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Social Sciences of Science

The application of sociological methods and theories to understand science itself as a social phenomenon. This field examines how scientific communities form, how prestige and funding flow through them, how consensus emerges (or fails to), and how social factors influence what gets studied and what gets ignored. It's not judging whether science is "true" but asking: who gets to be a scientist? Which questions are asked? Whose voices are heard? It treats the lab as a tribe and the journal as a ritual space.

Example: "The social sciences of science reveal that the 'lone genius' myth is just that—a myth that obscures the messy, collaborative, socially embedded reality of how discovery actually happens."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Social Sciences of Scientific Method

A meta-field that turns the tools of social science onto the scientific method itself, treating it not as a timeless, universal procedure but as a historically and culturally specific practice. It asks: How did this particular set of rules for inquiry become the gold standard? How do different disciplines modify the method? What social negotiations happen when results don't fit? It's the study of how scientists actually do science, as opposed to how textbooks say they should, revealing the method as a living, evolving social contract.

Example: "The replication crisis in psychology became a case study for the social sciences of scientific method—showing how the community's norms had failed and needed renegotiation."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026

Social Sciences of Epistemology

Perhaps the most reflexive of the meta-fields: using social science to study how societies collectively decide what counts as knowledge in the first place. It examines how epistemological standards—what we accept as evidence, what we consider proof, who we trust as authorities—are shaped by social structures, power relations, and cultural contexts. It reveals that even our most fundamental assumptions about "how we know" are, at least in part, social products rather than pure logical necessities.

Example: "The social sciences of epistemology explain why a medieval peasant and a modern physicist would disagree about what constitutes 'proof' of God—they're operating under entirely different social agreements about knowledge."

by Dumu The Void March 11, 2026