James Vincent - Five Way Interview

James Vincent is a senior reporter from the Verge, the Vox Media site devoted to technology and society. He has also written for the London Review of Books, Financial Times, and Wired. He lives in London. His new book is Beyond Measure on the hidden history of measurement.

Why science?

I don't really think I write 'science.' Rather, I hope what I do is an amalgamation of science, history, sociology, and any other narrative or factual ingredients I feel like tossing into the pot. I say this not with the intention of giving myself any special precedence either, it's just that I think it's impossible to write about science without straying into these other categories. The world is an amalgamation: horrifically tangled, dense, and interconnected. Science is the name we give to one of many methods of unpicking the whole.

Why this book?

Because I have that childish instinct to look for the category above the category, like hands grasping a pole, one on top the other, top the other, top the other, until you're grabbing air. Measurement is just one of those meta-categories that defines and shapes a whole lot of intellectual effort and so I found myself drawn. And, more importantly I guess, I knew I'd enjoy writing it — and I did.

How do you feel about random journalistic metrics such as ’three Empire State Buildings’, ’six London buses’ or ‘a Manhattan/Wales in area’?

I love them. They're imaginative and pragmatic: a beautiful combination. I remember reading an article about a satellite being launched on some exploratory mission into the depths of the solar system and the journalist described the probe as 'about the size of a washing machine.' Isn't that perfect? Isn't it beautiful? To imagine your washing machine drifting into space — a little domestic voyager, far from home, working its way through a final spin cycle perhaps. To me, these sorts of random metrics are best enjoyed as unintentional metaphors: transferring the property of one entity onto another. And that means there's poetry in them.

What’s next?

Another book and — I hope — a better one. I always hope to improve. It'll be similarly meta and likely a little more mad.

What’s exciting you at the moment?

This morning I've been listening to Charly Antolini, a Swiss jazz drummer, particularly his album Super Knock Out. The first track, which you can listen to on YouTube here gives you a flavour. I don't know much about jazz, but I love the intensity of focus that listening to Antolini's drumming creates.

Image © Lynn Rothwell

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