For our next class on April 16, I would like you to reflect upon the “high tech disasters” that we’ve been looking at for the past few weeks, specifically from the perspective of the Algorithms of Oppression reading, the Silicon Valley of Dreams chapter, and the Programmed Inequality reading.
Think about connections between these three, and whether they are similar to, or different from, previous “lower tech” disasters that we have studied. Choose an article that somehow allows you to highlight an important insight or question that you’ve come up with, as you’ve thought about these disasters, their root causes, and the process of historical change. Upload a link to your article, as well as its title and one sentence on why you chose it, in a comment on this post by April 13th at 5pm. I will look them over and make them visible (so you can read each other’s articles, by April 14th.
Note:
Here are a few more articles I thought might spark discussion on the articles the class has provided:
Coding and Coercion (about how tech workers themselves are beginning to rebel against the tech industry; see also groups like Tech Workers Coalition and Listen Up, Tech!)
MySpace Tom beat Facebook in the long run: Wouldn’t you rather be a rich nobody than whatever Mark Zuckerberg is? (about the need to address and account for obsolescence in technologies–instead of getting caught up in the fiction that technologies can function forever)
A Feature, Not A Bug (about how the history of computing gives lie to one of our most beloved fictions: technological meritocracy–and the idea that it can save us)
https://www.salon.com/2018/02/24/government-regulation-of-social-media-would-be-a-cure-far-worse-than-the-disease_partner-2/
One of the potential solutions discussed in class to these technological disasters was greater government regulation; however, this article states that more regulation could actually be more harmful to society than these disasters.
‘The Business of War’: Google Employees Protest Work for the Pentagon
I think this article highlights how technology companies can work for or with the government to create new and more advanced weaponry and potentially what the government would do if companies like facebook or google were public entities.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/google-letter-ceo-pentagon-project.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftechnology
“The Other Tech Bubble”
https://www.wired.com/story/the-other-tech-bubble/
I think Erin Griffith does a good job in this article dissecting the myopia of the technology sector, whose self-importance oft exacerbates social problems, as seen in the high-tech disasters we’ve looked at.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/01/27/this-is-how-much-money-youre-worth-to-facebook/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4db36c8f5027
This is how much money you’re worth to Facebook. I chose this article because right now Facebook and other large tech companies provide a free service to their users. They in turn then use their user base as their product to make money from advertising. An alternative to making money off selling their users’ information for ads would be to make their users pay for the service. This article breaks down how much each user earns Facebook.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/technology/ct-diversity-tech-little-progress-ap-bsi-20170125-story.html
This article highlights “the blame game” that often occurs in the tech field when examining diversity issues. This seems to be a common connections in almost all of the historical disasters we have previously discussed.
https://www.bustle.com/p/what-job-automation-could-mean-for-the-gender-gap-according-to-a-new-report-8638204
This article adresses the impact of automation on relative employment levels of genders in the job market. Many jobs based on physical skills are projected to be replaced by robots and AI, which could reduce employment in labor-intensive industries, such as construction, which are typically dominated by men. However, service industries, such as restaurant servers are potentially at risk too, and jobs like this are largely employers of women. The balance of genders employed in the total job market is changing.
I chose this article because I wanted to examine how technology involved in high tech disasters is only interrogated after its failure, and how we tend to view newer tech as trustworthy merely because it is newer.
Title: Amtrak train derailed on tracks that had automatic-braking technology — but it was still being tested
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/19/speeding-amtrak-train-derailed-track-without-automatic-braking/964483001/
https://www.wired.com/story/app-permissions/
APP PERMISSIONS DON’T TELL US NEARLY ENOUGH ABOUT OUR APPS
Consumers have a right to clear language that fully informs them on what they are using (as well as any potential dangers), an obvious parallel to the auto industry failures of the 20th century.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/306451
Title: Getting to The Root of the Tech Industry’s Gender Gap
This article offers suggestions on how to go about minimizing the gender gap in the high tech industry.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/09/06/transgender-people-find-flexibility-barriers-tech/89369436/
The article focuses on the lack of gender inclusivity and representation in the tech world. Careers in technology are already unfairly given to white men often having poor diversity. This phenomenon and disparity is even greater when it comes to being transgender or gender-expansive.
https://www.cnet.com/news/the-race-for-ai-power-of-tech-giants-under-scrutiny-in-uk-house-of-lords-report/
Article details how modern governments are shuffling over how to properly prepare contemporary society for AI; illustrates that governments really have no clue as to the scope of change AI will bring (does anyone?).
Title: New Mexico’s Sad Bet on Space Exploration
Author: Ingrid Burrington
Publication: The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/new-mexicos-sad-bet-on-space-exploration/554243/
Talks about space, but I think the story unfolding about how they invested a bunch of money on this one project and banked on being successful, and then didn’t quite, has a lot of similarities to the British computer programming story.
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/ai-personalized-marketing/
This article is an explanation of some of the goals of using AI and machine learning in marketing at google, from their own VP of Marketing. In our discussions in class we talked a lot about the issues specifically with Google’s search problems, and I wanted to see a bit more about what their future goals are with AI.