The Everyday Life of an Algorithm

• Main Author: Neyland, Daniel (auth)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer Nature 2019
• Subjects: Cultural studies; Sociology; Ethical & social aspects of IT; Algorithms & data structures; Mathematical theory of computation; Social sciences; Technology-Sociological aspects; Culture; Technology; Computers and civilization; Data structures (Computer science); Mathematical logic
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

This open access book begins with an algorithm-a set of IF...THEN rules used in the development of a new, ethical, video surveillance architecture for transport hubs. Readers are invited to follow the algorithm over three years, charting its everyday life. Questions of ethics, transparency, accountability and market value must be grasped by the algorithm in a series of ever more demanding forms of experimentation. Here the algorithm must prove its ability to get a grip on everyday life if it is to become an ordinary feature of the settings where it is being put to work. Through investigating the everyday life of the algorithm, the book opens a conversation with existing social science research that tends to focus on the power and opacity of algorithms. In this book we have unique access to the algorithm's design, development and testing, but can also bear witness to its fragility and dependency on others.