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Great discussion - thanks everyone!
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<div class="">My thoughts: Wrt social media and big tech, the phrases “the algorithm” and “these algorithms” now function much like the phrase “these models” in many non-scientific discussions of climate science. They're massive generalizations, or straw figures
to beat up on, or invoked as symbols of power relationships, stupid science, or human bias. The reality is more complex.</div>
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<div class="">As an example, O’Neil’s “an opinion embedded in math” is dead-on right for some kinds of machine learning algorithms. But it’s dead wrong for many other algorithms. An algorithm for sorting lists alphabetically or numerically is not “an opinion
embedded in math” since most of the time, alphabetical and numerical order are uncontroversial, widely used standards. Yet no distinction is made. “These algorithms.” </div>
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<div class="">To describe usages like these, I like Malte Ziewitz’s phrase “the *figure* of the algorithm,” which is only loosely connected to what is actually going on under the hood. Ziewitz, Malte. 2017. “A not quite random walk: Experimenting with the ethnomethods
of the algorithm.” Big Data & Society 4 (2): 205395171773810. doi:10.1177/2053951717738105 </div>
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<div class="">I see no reason to “correct” these usages most of the time – but they *can* become quite problematic when they’re really gestures at big tech, social media, human decisions leading to biased training data for ML, and so on. They obscure the complexity
of how human choices and responsibilities interact with automatic activity in algorithmic systems. </div>
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<div class="">For many with little understanding of how computer systems work, “the algorithm” becomes a proxy for “the programmers” and often assumes intent on the part of those programmers - but today, in many case programmers don't know in advance how their
code will interact with all the other code in massive online systems that also interact with *other* massive online systems, all of them constantly changing on a near-daily basis. Nor do many discourses about algorithms fully take into the account how social
media algorithms are constantly adapting in the continual back-and-forth between the human users of these systems and “the algorithm.” </div>
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<div class="">Some ideas about all this appear in my article “We Have Been Assimilated: Some Principles for Thinking About Algorithmic Systems.” 2018. In IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology: Living with Monsters? Social Implications of
Algorithmic Phenomena, Hybrid Agency, and the Performativity of Technology, edited by Ulrike Schultze et al., 19–27. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04091-8_3" class="">http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04091-8_3</a></div>
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<div class="">If you can’t get access directly, email me and I’ll send you a copy. </div>
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<div class="">Best,</div>
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<div class="">Paul</div>
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<div class="">On Oct 29, 2021, at 09:16, Ellen Spertus <<a href="mailto:spertus@mills.edu" class="">spertus@mills.edu</a>> wrote:</div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="">I liked this recent tweet from Colin McMillen [<a href="https://twitter.com/mcmillen/status/1449116726407401472" class="">1</a>]:
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<div class=""><span style="color:rgb(15,20,25);font-family:TwitterChirp,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:23px;white-space:pre-wrap" class="">algorithms are money laundering for unethical decision-making</span></div>
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I like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heQzqX35c9A" class="">Cathy O'Neil's discussion of algorithms</a> (2:38), "an opinion embedded in math" and shared it with my Race, Gender, and Computing class.</div>
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<div class="">I also shared <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hfOvs8pY1k" class="">
David Malan's more conventional definition</a> (4:57).</div>
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<div>________________________</div>
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<div class=""><a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/paul-edwards" class="">Paul N. Edwards</a><br class="">
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<div class="">Director, <a href="http://sts.stanford.edu" class="">Program on Science, Technology & Society</a></div>
<div class="">William J. Perry Fellow in International Security and Senior Research Scholar</div>
<div class=""><a href="http://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/" class="">Center for International Security and Cooperation</a></div>
<div class="">Co-Director, <a href="https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/stanford-existential-risks-initiative" class="">Stanford Existential Risks Initiative</a></div>
<div class="">Stanford University<br class="">
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Professor of <a href="http://www.si.umich.edu/" class="">Information</a> and <a href="http://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/" class="">History</a> (Emeritus)</div>
<div class="">University of Michigan</div>
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