4.9: Eni Mustafaraj

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 98091

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Wellesley College http://cs.wellesley.edu/~eni/about.html

OK Computer,¹²⁹ let’s count the ways in which computing devices connected to the internet have rewired human’s media consumption and communication habits in a modern, privileged society. We used to read ink-printed newspapers delivered daily at our doorsteps, whereas now we skim headlines in our favorite online news aggregator on a mobile phone. We used to wander around in department stores’ aisles where new music was sold in packaged CD-ROMs with colorful artwork, whereas now we stream it non-stop on Spotify, often without knowing the artist’s name. Such a list is long. Technologists and venture capitalists want us to believe that this progress is good, desirable, and unstoppable, but we must pause and ask ourselves: who chooses the news headlines we read, and how? Who recommends the next music track to listen, and whose music is left out? The answer is that increasingly algorithms are in charge of these decisions.

But couldn’t we humans make such decisions better ourselves? Why rely on algorithms? A pro-algorithm argument would posit that to include most of humanity in this new modern and interconnected world, we also need speed and scale. An algorithm, which resembles a recipe for cooking a dish, can be executed at light-speed by millions of computers, accomplishing in just a fraction of a second something that would take humans years. If we want more people in the world to have access to the total human knowledge accessible on the Internet, we need algorithms. However, what we need to object against are the values driving the companies that own these algorithms. To effect change, we must collectively advocate for algorithmic-driven information platforms that operate like public libraries: a common good, whose primary goal is not to serve as money-generating machines for share-holders, but to become shared spaces for intellectual and spiritual human flourishing.

References

This is the title of the third studio album by the English band Radiohead that came out in 1997.

Contributors and Attributions

Template:ContribInfoLiteracyAgeofAlgorithmPIL