Pattern Recognition in Scientific Practice

What are patterns and how can they be recognized? In the 20th century, scientists across disciplines began asking themselves this question with increased intensity. Anthropologists attempted to reveal patterns in culture. Cyberneticists sought out rules for extracting the most recognizable features from patterns. Mathematicians designed techniques to automatically classify patterns. Under the pressure of this scrutiny, patterns suddenly coalesced as objects of scientific inquiry. This talk situates this development historically, with special reference to the co-extensive emergence of machine learning and data-driven surveillance techniques.