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Algorithms in/of Culture: Exploring the Global Reach of Algorithms

Sat, September 2, 4:00 to 5:30pm, Sheraton Boston, Floor: 3, Beacon H

Session Submission Type: Traditional (Closed) Panel

Abstract

Algorithms – loosely defined as a set of rules to direct the behavior of machines or humans – have shaped infrastructures, practices, and daily lives around the world. This panel explores the implications of algorithms from an STS perspective, guided by these questions:

(1) The multiple definitions and histories of algorithms: The term ‘algorithm’ predates the digital computer by over a millennium, with an etymology traceable to Islamic scholar al-Khwārizmī. How broadly might we usefully define the term today? Are contemporary algorithms necessarily computational? What are the implications of the explosion of discourse about ‘algorithms’ in popular culture?

(2) Algorithms as more than computation: What does it mean to study algorithms as myth, narrative, ideology, discourse, or power? How can these approaches contribute back to computer and data science?

(3) Algorithms as specifically computational: What are the social and theoretical implications of new developments in computation such as big data, deep neural networks, distributed computing, or ‘microwork’?

(4) Practices and materialities of algorithms: Just as science studies advocates for a focus on the local practices and material artifacts which produce and sustain scientific knowledge, what kinds of work is done to make algorithms computable, and what are the material effects of algorithms?

(5) Living with algorithms, quantifying the self: Algorithms pervade daily life and we experience their impact almost anywhere, not just at a computer. How can we better understand how far-flung domains are being reshaped by algorithms, and what are the implications in everyday and civic life?

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