Reading Activity 0102: Algorithms

 Algorithms

Reading Activity 0102

If everyone admires their own Instagram as much as I do (compared to anyone else's), here is actual wallpaper designed to keep your hands free for other important components of self admiration!

The first article I found that has a positive view of algorithms (mostly) is on mashable.com, and I wouldn't say that it necessarily centers on 'the positive' but rather, a clear definition of what they are, as well a historical context. Since algorythm means, and I had no idea, a sequence of instructions (and in the context of the Web, instructions for a computer), the piece is able to explore the ways algorythms are changing, for example machines are able to learn, like AI, like humans. No judgment in the article (like, that's not creepy). It's true that without them it would be difficult and tedious to shop online, at the very least. 

(https://mashable.com/article/what-is-an-algorithm/)

The second article I found, this one is actually a transcript of a conversation with Chris Hedges, Ramesh Srimivasan and Amy Goodman on Democracy now asks: Is Big Tech Too Powerful. As Chris Hedges says 

"Well, Twitter, all of these digital platforms are not neutral arbiters. In fact, they’re, of course, for-profit corporations with close ties to the security state. And if you look back over the past few years, they have imposed heavy forms of censorship and interference, primarily on the left, and in particularly on WikiLeaks. So, they blocked the ability for WikiLeaks to accept donations on PayPal and every other platform. Every time WikiLeaks would hold a press conference, there would be interference, electronic interference. People couldn’t get in the room. They’ve used algorithms. And then we saw, again, their very partisan activity during the campaign when they locked the New York Post out of its own Twitter account because it had published stories about the revelations found on the discarded or abandoned laptop from Hunter Biden, which, in retrospect, have proven quite serious. Glenn Greenwald took a very heroic stance on this, and The Intercept wouldn’t publish his story."

Srimivasan says "Twitter is self-serving. These Big Tech companies are self-serving. There are many right-wing trolls who are going viral, as we speak, on Twitter right now. All of these technology platforms, powered by their hidden algorithms, that are indeed opaque, thrive on the amplification of polarization, the amplification of attention. They are able to computationally predict what will grab our eye balls And the disorienting, propagandist, hateful kinds of content that comes out of President Trump on Twitter makes him an incredible ally."

One is a very fact based, simple definition based article, the other explores the role of Big Tech and it's algorithms having a fascistic effect on the United States in terms of the role they have played in Donald Trump's ability to connect to, radicalize, groom and mobilize extreme right wingers, the effects of which are just beginning to be seen. 

(https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/02/raging-against-the-algorithm-google-and-persuasive-technology/)