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Un-Knowing and De-boxing the Algorithm

Sat, May 26, 12:30 to 13:45, Hilton Prague, Floor: M, Yoga Room (Cybex Health Club)

Abstract

This paper tackles the question of how algorithms can be known, arguing for an epistemology of algorithms that moves beyond the popular conception of the algorithm as a black box. Rather than taking the ontological stance that algorithms are black boxes, the question guiding this paper is what is at stake in framing algorithms in this way and what implications such a framing has on knowing the algorithm in the first place? Using the alleged problematic of the black-boxed nature of algorithms as the guiding theme for this chapter, it starts from the supposed epistemological challenges that black boxes pose and concludes by shifting attention away from questions of where agency is located to questions of when agency is mobilized and on whose behalf. By un-knowing and de-boxing the algorithm the aim is to destabilize current discussions of algorithmic power and politics by arguing for a shift in analytical perspective.

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