On 10/05/13 17:20, marc garrett wrote: > Hi Rob, > > Thanks for your recent list to the ahem, list ;-) > > I was reading this article -- Will self-piloting vehicles rob us of the > last of our privacy and autonomy? > http://reason.com/archives/2013/05/10/googles-driverless-future > > I have been reading much about algorithms lately. By definition, > algorithms are a set of rules used for solving a set of problems. Yet, > if we consider the social aspects regarding how algorithms are used to > assess our behaviours, things get awkward and a bit hazy. Studying the > use of algorithms according to millions of users on the Web, has become > a kind of dark art. > > I found this paragraph from the article interesting --- > > "The driverless car,
The car is being driven, just not by you... > in short, is a data detective’s dream, a device > that can discern when you get a new job, how many one-night stands you > have, how often you go to the dentist. As demarcation lines between the > real world and the virtual world continue to blur, autonomous cars will > function not so much as browsers but links, the way we get from one > appointment or transaction opportunity to the next. In theory, Google > will determine the route to your desired destination based on distance, > available infrastructure, and current traffic conditions. But what if > Google, which already filters cyberspace for you, begins choosing routes > as a way of putting you in proximity to “relevant content”?" Advertising is a way of alleviating inefficiencies in the market (or in product development....), where markets are a means for efficiently allocating resources. Google turn advertising into a pretty pure market through a pretty clever algorithm - http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/nep_googlenomics_auction http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_googlenomics?currentPage=all Driving around aimlessly or trying to plan your route yourself is just so inefficient, so the idea that the car might be the means of delivering you to advertisers isn't so outlandish. Next is the car app that drives you to meet your date. And the one that drives you to the opening or the gig that you never knew you wanted to go to. How will cars be used for pr0n? ;-) The web browser is Virilio's "static vehicle", and a browserised car is a good example of his mediatised, disempowered individual under the speed of technology. We'll ignore peak oil in this scenario. ;-) There was a very good talk at the Free Software Foundation conference in 2012 about cars, see "Why Cars need Free Software" here - http://she-devel.com/ > I'm wondering what yourself and others think about this, whether anyone > is sceptical about how algorithms are being used or if anyone has a more > positive stance on matter? This conversation taking place thanks to the algorithms that render text on our screens, that handle input and allocate resources to competing processes on our computers, and that route messages across the Internet. :-) It pains the technological determinist in me ( ;-) ) to say this but algorithms are just tools, or possibly a medium, and so they are tools (or a medium) for social struggle. High frequency trading is a means of extracting wealth from society that happens to have the form of algorithms, for example: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/08/market-data-firm-spots-the-tracks-of-bizarre-robot-traders/60829/ Voting and tagging bots on reddit are a means of promoting and critiquing political agendas: http://civic.mit.edu/blog/petey/the-fault-dear-reddit-is-not-in-our-bots-but-in-ourselves-the-case-of-libertybot And the digital humanities are discovering interesting new things about culture: http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/marchapril/feature/graphing-culture We can certainly gain by understanding and engaging with algorithms *but* it will take economic and social resources to do so. MANIK's emphasis on techne may be of use here. Some books: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596529321.do http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0071743448.html http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/digitalhumanities-0 _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
