[SIGCIS-Members] Heads up new paper : Victorian Human Computers

[Bernardo Batiz-Lazo]

Might be of interest as this is an outlet not everyone in the list reads regularly 
Happy Christmas 
Bernardo 
Northumbria 


Cyberpunk Victoria: The credibility of computers and the first digital revolution, 1848–83
Marc Flandreau, Geoffroy Legentilhomme
First published: 22 December 2021
https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13134

Abstract
British capitalism was a knowledge economy that lived on reliable numerical information. We argue that human computers and the algorithms they used played a vital intermediation role and supported the growth of the British capital market, because they resolved digital information asymmetries. Given the lack of an archive for ‘Cyberpunk Victoria’, we demonstrate the computers’ role as financial intermediaries by identifying their imprint on the production of data by a prominent numerical factory, the Investor's Monthly Manual, a companion publication of the Economist. Our study underscores the import of digital mechanization and the relevance of human cybernetics to the development of financial capitalism.



Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse my brevity.
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