Building the Modern Science Stack

## Building the Modern Science Stack J. Colliander [2i2c](https://2i2c.org) and [UBC](https://www.math.ubc.ca) NASA SMD Data/Compute Architecture Study slides: [bit.ly/smd-architecture](https://bit.ly/smd-architecture) --- # Problem and Opportunity ---- ## Problem science is underperforming relative to potential ---- ## Opportunity technology + social innovation can boost science ---- ## Headwound massive need for high performing science ecosystem ---- ## Immediacy signals forecast transformation investments in _open_ science ---- ### Inflection Point? Y. Benkler (2004) [called for commons-based governance](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1100526) of science. It's finally happening! + Interactive computing ecosystem integration + Changed information flows + Commons-based science incentives + [NASA TOPS](https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/transform-to-open-science) + [UNESCO Recommendation](https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379949/PDF/379949eng.pdf.multi.page=20) + [🇨🇦's Road Map to Open Science](https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_97992.html) ---- How should NASA configure data + compute architecture? ---- What principles should guide NASA's digital information ecosystem? ---- On what timeframe should we see transformation? ---- What do we measure that transforms? --- # Science ---- ## What is science? A systematic social enterprise that builds and organizes human understanding of the universe with testable explanations and predictions. :::success The central activity of science is exchanging information. ::: ---- Science is a **social enterprise**. Governance is the way we manage social collaboration. ---- <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OpenScience?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OpenScience</a> is a process, not a product." --<a href="https://twitter.com/fperez_org?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@fperez_org</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ToOpenScience?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ToOpenScience</a> Community Panel.</p>— James Colliander (@colliand) <a href="https://twitter.com/colliand/status/1578070619396009984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2022</a></blockquote> ---- ## Science Commons + **People** in social collaboration structures (universities, agencies, societies, philanthropy, publishers, teams,...) + **Resources** (salaries, instruments, libraries, infrastructure, **data**, **compute**,...) :::info Governance is the way we structure and manage social collaboration. ::: ---- ## Science enterprise changes + pre-internet reprints vs. internet downloads + No NSF 80 years ago + paywalls; impact factors; [cost of knowledge](http://thecostofknowledge.com/) + iPhone emerged 15 years ago ---- ## Monotonicity and Conservation ---- ### massive ROI Science works! ---- ### Core activity # information exchange ![general-communication-system-diagram](https://i.imgur.com/9cr8Glz.jpg) [Bell System Technical Journal](https://archive.org/details/bellsystemtechni27amerrich/page/380/mode/2up) ---- ### Multi-generational Effort Schools and Universities ---- ```mermaid gantt title University History section Americas UNAM : 1910-09-01, 1000d Johns Hopkins: 1877-02-22, 1000d Morill Act: 1862-01-01, 100d UPenn : 1755-09-01, 1000d William and Mary : 1639-09-01, 1000d Harvard : 1636-09-01, 1000d section Expansion Peking : 1898-01-01, 1000d Berlin/Humboldt : 1810-01-01, 1000d Edinburgh : 1582-09-01, 1000d Copenhagen : 1475-09-01,1000d Istanbul : 1453-09-01, 1000d St. Andrews : 1410-09-01, 1000d Leipzig : 1409-09-01, 1000d Vienna : 1365-09-01, 1000d Charles : 1347-09-01, 1000d section Beginnings Salamanaca : 1218-09-01, 1000d Cambridge : 1209-09-01, 1000d Oxford : 1200-09-01, 1000d Bologna :1088-09-01 , 1000d ``` ---- ### Persistent tensions collective vs. individual specialization vs. generalization dreams vs. capacity ---- ### Pattern formalization accelerates science mathematization, computation, data biology $\longmapsto$ bioinformatics _precision_ health, _smart_ agriculture, _digital_ sociology --- # Guidance ---- ## Intellectual Generosity + [W.P. Thurston: On proof and progress in mathematics](https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1994-30-02/S0273-0979-1994-00502-6/) + [R.L. Morris: Intellectual generosity and the reward structure of mathematics](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-020-02660-w) ---- ## Intellectual Humility ---- ![phd](http://academiclifehistories.weebly.com/uploads/9/9/3/4/99343332/published/the-illustrated-guide-to-a-phd1.jpg?1530628082) ---- ### [F. Ardila](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Ardila)'s Axioms 1. Mathematical potential is distributed equally among different groups, irrespective of geographic, demographic, and economic boundaries. 2. Everyone can have joyful, meaningful, and empowering mathematical experiences. 3. Mathematics is a powerful, malleable tool that can be shaped and used differently by various communities to serve their needs. 4. Every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. ---- ### [F. Ardila](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Ardila)'s Axioms 1. _Scientific_ potential is distributed equally among different groups, irrespective of geographic, demographic, and economic boundaries. 2. Everyone can have joyful, meaningful, and empowering _scientific_ experiences. 3. _Science_ is a powerful, malleable tool that can be shaped and used differently by various communities to serve their needs. 4. Every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. ---- ## Information exchange ---- basic needs $\longmapsto$ rights Bell System: human need to connect $\longmapsto$ right to telephone right to read, right to education **right to participate** in science? right to understand data? ---- Who are the audiences for NASA data/compute architecture? What are NASA's obligations to these audiences? How to balance right to participate and costs? ---- ## Social + Technical Design Space? + 75th anniversary of digital information era + for-profit startups vs. collective structures + Facebook, Google, Wolfram vs. Linux, Wikipedia, SciPy + avoid vendor lock-in + scientists should actively improve science enterprise + 2023? Year of Open Science; Year 0 of robust qubits? --- # Observations ---- **National scale open toolchain is ~~possible~~ inevitable** [Pangeo](https://pangeo.io/), [Syzygy](https://syzygy.ca/), [Callysto](https://www.callysto.ca/), [mybinder](https://mybinder.org/), [2i2c](https://2i2c.org) Colab, Sagemaker, Codespaces, ... ---- How to pay for it? Who should get access? Quantify costs? Recover costs? **No one should own the scientific toolchain.** ---- 2i2c is a defensive strategy to protect digital tools for science. ---- ## [Right to Replicate](https://2i2c.org/right-to-replicate/) + avoid vendor lock-in + commercial cloud becomes utility + federation diversifies needed SRE talent + no purity tests like GPL; allow close source tools ---- ## Digital Watering Holes data + tools attracts communities Pangeo ICIJ AWI/CIROH Helio Cryo VREs; Science Gateways ---- ## Multipurpose platforms + training + exploring + collaboration + dashboarding + storytelling + reproducing ---- ## Multistakeholder audiences + trainees + researchers + reviewers + operations + policymakers ---- ## Polymath vs. Monomath Systems science vs. Narrow disciplinarity ---- ## Speed of knowledge transfer convection vs. diffusion research $\longleftrightarrow$ operations ---- ## Cryo community template hub + community + events target: AGU23 ---- ## Propose experiments during Year of Open Science? + time-boxed access for diverse audiences? + unify ongoing efforts (helio, cryo, climate) + improve storytelling tools + incentivize validation and reproduction --- # Other Slides ---- ## [Academus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academus) ---- #### $A \Gamma \mbox{E} \Omega \mbox{METPHTO}\Sigma ~~ \mbox{MH}\Delta \mbox{EI} \Sigma ~~ \mbox{EI}\Sigma \mbox{IT} \Omega$ "Let none but geometers enter here" ---- <iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/embed?mid=1GVWq3X7grAhDGoAQx5RSN1p8OCTKoP0&ehbc=2E312F" width="640" height="480"></iframe> ---- ![Quackenbos](https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/19500/19501/academus_19501_lg.gif) "Grove of Academus" by Quackenbos 1882; ©2022 by the University of South Florida ---- ### Academy + pioneering social collaboration structure + Participants were "earth measurers" + "Academia" is a land acknowledgement :::info How should we name whatever we may invent here? ::: ---- ## Science Commons ---- ## Commons + The cultural and natural resources available to all members of society. + History: Common Land Enclosure + [Tragedy](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.162.3859.1243) of the Commons is not inevitable. ([Ostrom](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/governing-the-commons/A8BB63BC4A1433A50A3FB92EDBBB97D5)) :::warning Vast literature! Excludability, Rivalry, CPRs, ... ::: ---- ### Contrasting views of human nature :::danger Humans are selfish individuals who act in response to incentives and force ::: VERSUS :::success Humans are collaborative and work together for collective benefit ::: ---- # Information ---- ```mermaid gantt title Bell System Timeline section Vision Information ubiquity :crit, active, 1947-01-01, 1984-01-01 Universal service: 1907-01-01, 1949-01-01 Phone in every town: 1877-01-01, 1907-04-30 section Milestones Royalty Free Patents: 1956-01-01, 1984-06-01 Transistor :crit, active, 1948-06-01, 1984-06-01 Information Theory :crit, 1947-06-01, 1984-06-01 WW2 : 1941-12-07, 1945-06-15 Transatlantic : 1927-01-07, 100d Vertical Monopoly: 1921-01-01, 1984-06-01 Transcontinental: 1915-01-25, 100d Competition: 1894-06-01, 1907-04-30 Patent : 1879-06-01, 1894-06-01 ``` ---- ### _"One Policy, One System, Universal Service"_ AT&T leadership argued phone service + is essential to human existence + will require massive R&D + must be delivered by a regulated monopoly :::info Phone service was exceptional and required a novel service delivery model. ::: ---- + Information flows and is quantifiable ('bit') + Channel capacity can be measured + Transistor made abstractions realizable :::success Information theory created a social and technological design space. ::: ---- ## Social technological design approaches + Market-based (startups) + Commons-based (Wikipedia, Linux) :::warning Both approaches have merit. Commons-based approaches are less well-developed. Why? ::: ---- # Governance ---- ### How should the science commmons be governed? + People and Resources + Information flows $\leftarrow$ exceptional like phone? ---- ## Is there a playbook? Next steps? Features of communities that successfully manage their commons were identified by Ostrom and colleagues. [R. Safner analyzed the success of Wikipedia](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-institutional-economics/article/institutional-entrepreneurship-wikipedia-and-the-opportunity-of-the-commons/B9796AD1644066E413EB3B0AE3A6FDAE) using this framework. [Y. Panda explored wiki principles as a strategy to democratize programming](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stealing_some_of_Wikimedia%27s_Principles_to_Democratize_Programming.webm). The [history of the Open Geospatial Consortium](https://www.ogc.org/ogc/historylong) has lessons.