Recently Viewed

New

What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing by Ed Finn

No reviews yet Write a Review
Booksplease Price: $75.50

  Bookmarks: Included free with every order
  Delivery: We ship to over 200 countries from the UK
  Range: Millions of books available
  Reviews: Booksplease rated "Excellent" on Trustpilot

  FREE UK DELIVERY: When You Buy 3 or More Books - Use code: FREEUKDELIVERY in your cart!

SKU:
9780262536042
MPN:
9780262536042
Available from Booksplease!
Global delivery available
Global delivery available
Global delivery available
Global delivery available
Global delivery available
Availability: Usually dispatched within 4 working days

Frequently Bought Together:

Total: Inc. VAT
Total: Ex. VAT

Description

The gap between theoretical ideas and messy reality, as seen in Neal Stephenson, Adam Smith, and Star Trek. We depend on-we believe in-algorithms to help us get a ride, choose which book to buy, execute a mathematical proof. It's as if we think of code as a magic spell, an incantation to reveal what we need to know and even what we want. Humans have always believed that certain invocations-the marriage vow, the shaman's curse-do not merely describe the world but make it. Computation casts a cultural shadow that is shaped by this long tradition of magical thinking. In this book, Ed Finn considers how the algorithm-in practical terms, "a method for solving a problem"-has its roots not only in mathematical logic but also in cybernetics, philosophy, and magical thinking. Finn argues that the algorithm deploys concepts from the idealized space of computation in a messy reality, with unpredictable and sometimes fascinating results. Drawing on sources that range from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash to Diderot's Encyclopedie, from Adam Smith to the Star Trek computer, Finn explores the gap between theoretical ideas and pragmatic instructions. He examines the development of intelligent assistants like Siri, the rise of algorithmic aesthetics at Netflix, Ian Bogost's satiric Facebook game Cow Clicker, and the revolutionary economics of Bitcoin. He describes Google's goal of anticipating our questions, Uber's cartoon maps and black box accounting, and what Facebook tells us about programmable value, among other things. If we want to understand the gap between abstraction and messy reality, Finn argues, we need to build a model of "algorithmic reading" and scholarship that attends to process, spearheading a new experimental humanities.

Book Information
ISBN 9780262536042
Author Ed Finn
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint MIT Press
Publisher MIT Press Ltd

Reviews

No reviews yet Write a Review

Booksplease  Reviews