Roelof Pieters: Anthropologist & Hacker - on the hacks that can make social scientists’ lives more creative

Roelof Petersis one of the leading AI visionaries and developers in Europe. His academic and professional interests combine software development and digital humanities, his research stretches from history and social movements to creation of new learning tools in computer science. Roelof has degrees in Computer Science from University of Amsterdam and Cultural Anthropology from University of Leiden. He then went on to do: Masters in Social Anthropology in Stockholm University. He stayed in Stockholm where he is currently a PhD Candidate in Deep Learningat KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Before discovering anthropology, Roelof was actively involved in development projects in Ghana through software development initiatives within grassroot organizations. He is the founder of Creative.ai and Sunshine Lab as well as the influential AI-network Stockholm AI.

In today’s episode Roelof shares his personal journey of a culturally engaged software developer, a computer scientist turned into an anthropologist in an effort to produce ‘anti-disciplinary’ knowledge as he himself defines it. We talk about the numerous platforms Roelof initiated whose goal is to make life of scientists and designers more creative and about the importance of community -based internet as opposed to focusing on fast internet. He explains that his inspiration for projects comes from walking the path between utopias and dystopias. We ask Roelof to tell us more about the challenges of walking this path, the themes he will be speaking to at the Anthropology+Technology conference and to give ideas of hacks he would advise applied anthropologists to use if they are interested of pursuing a similar path.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/roelofpieters/