Abstract
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.This book
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 Encyclopédie, 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.
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