Epi

Concept for an IOS app that helps people evaluate their deeply held beliefs using the conversational tool Street Epistemology.

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1. What's the problem here?

Today's society is more divided than ever. A global pandemic is coinciding with a critical presidential election; and, against all rational expectations, everyone is apparently an expert on both.

But what if I told you there is a way to avoid the unending pain associated with arguing? That, by having these conversations, you can engage in civil discourse that can build relationships instead of breaking them down?

You may be asking me: "Kate, what power can one really have when Aunt Karen is spouting anti-vaccine rhetoric during the Thanksgiving dinner Zoom call?"

The answer: Street Epistemology.

2. What in the rat's larynx is Street Epistemology???

Here's an example for you visual learners out there. Street Epistemology comes from the word epistemology, meaning "theory of knowledge," (or how we know things to be true.)

It basically relies on asking questions to evaluate the reliability of the method one used to arrive at a particular belief. For example, you could use Street Epistemology to help Aunt Karen evaluate why she believes that birds are actually mind control drones planted by the government. (She might be right about that one, actually.)

Message me on Discord (KAT#8288) if you'd like to learn more about it or have any questions.

Why did you design an app?

I made an app to ease the process of starting street epistemology and hopefully reach a wider audience of people than what could be accomplished through people having conversations one-on-one.

Crystalizing what you're thinking in writing or language forces you to understand it yourself, and that's really the idea of Street Epistemology. Being honest with ourselves about our beliefs is one of the best ways to go through life while believing as many true things as possible.

I was inspired by the Youper app, which uses AI to act as a personal mental health assistant. I think the friendly and structured conversational approach used can be adapted to this application.

How I built it

I thought through a variety of ideas Friday, and then spent most of Saturday attending workshops and learning about API's, Adobe XD, python, internship opportunities, and more, but still doing almost no coding. I began working Saturday evening on the design, downloading apple's UI kit and figuring out how to use Adobe XD as I went.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  • Despite having a lot of experience designing logos and doing other graphical work, I have never used Adobe XD before or designed a UI of any sort. I'm excited to see what Adobe XD is capable of
  • Honestly, I'm just proud I was able to submit something. This is my first hackathon, and I've been extraordinarily confused the whole time. Everyone's been fantastic though and super supportive! I'm so thankful to be a member of this community.

What I learned

I realized suddenly that I really have no significant front-end coding experience besides an HTML course I took for fun in 6th grade. I also identified many future places for improvement and learning, such as in the areas of machine learning and AI. The workshops at Knighthacks also taught me about applications of computer science degrees in business and made me aware of a multitude of API's and languages I didn't know existed.

What's next for Digital Epistemology App

I'd love to learn how to actually implement the features I came up with and learn Swift in order to actually bring this into existence. I would also really love to make the app more conversational in nature. Using AI to train it for the purposes of a conversation based format would also be fantastic. I'd love to use natural language processing and AutoML from Google, but I know I wouldn't be able to do that with my current skillset. I feel like with a bit more knowledge, I could make the current app I have into a reality!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! :)

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