Some Recent History:
Weapons of Math Destruction
DEp00W
17 March 2022
How the World Came into
Computer (David Gugerli, 2018)
Contents:
• Settings
• Computing, Programming, Formatting
• Dividing and taking care of
• Synchronising
• Producing und directing
• Connecting, borders, saving
• Switching off
Early Modern computers
• Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635)
• Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
• Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834)
• Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
• Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
• Herman Hollerith (1860-1929)
• Alan Turing (1912-1954)
Computing. A Concise History
(Paul Ceruzzi, 2003, rev. 2012)
Table of Contents:
The digital age
The first computers, 1935-1945
The stored program principle
The chip and Silicon Valley
The microprocessor
The Internet and the World Wide Web
Conclusion.
Computer: A History of the
Information Machine
• Written originally by William Aspray and Martin
Campbell-Kelly
• Re-written together with Jeffrey R. Yost and Nathan
Ensmenger
• Overview --- from the point of view of information
tranfer
• Library science / information studies / informatics
• Digitisation
• Mathematisation
From Counterculture
to Cyberculture
(Fred Turner, 2006)
Contents:
1. The Shifting Politics of the Computational Metaphor
2. Stewart Brand Meets the Cybernetic Counterculture
3. The Whole Earth Catalog as Information Technology
4. Taking the Whole Earth Digital
5. Virtuality and Community on the WELL
6. Networking the New Economy
7. Wired
8. The Triumph of the Network Mode
Computer Boys Take Over
(Nathan Ensmenger, 2010)
1. Introducing the Computer Revolutionaries
2. The Black Art of Programming
3. Chess Player, Music Lovers, and Mathematicians
4. Tower of Babel
5. The Rise of Computer Science
6. The Cosa Nostra of the Data Processing Industry
7. The Professionalisation of Programming
8. Engineering Solution
9. Conclusion: Visible Technicians
A New History of Modern Computing
(Paul Ceruzzi, Thomas Haigh, 2021)
Becoming Universal:
Introducing A New History of Computing
1. Inventing the Computer
2. The Computer Becomes a Scientific Supertool
3. The Computer Becomes a Data Processing Device
4. The Computer Becomes a Real-Time Control System
5. The Computer Becomes an Interactive Tool
6. The Computer Becomes a Communications Platform
7. The Computer Becomes a Personal Plaything
Hello World
(Hannah Fry, 2018)
You are accused of a crime. Who would you rather
determined your fate - a human or an algorithm?
An algorithm is more consistent and less prone to error of
judgement. Yet a human can look you in the eye before
passing sentence.
Welcome to the age of the algorithm, the story of a not-toodistant
future where machines rule supreme, making
important decisions - in healthcare, transport, finance,
security, what we watch, where we go even who we send to
prison. So how much should we rely on them? What kind of
future do we want?
Cathy O‘Neil:
Weapons of Math Destruction
Table of Contents:Bomb parts: What is a model?
Shell shocked: My journey of disillusionment
Arms race: Going to college
Propaganda machine: Online advertising
Civilian casualties: Justice in the age of big data
Ineligible to serve: Getting a job
Sweating bullets: On the job
Collateral damage: Landing credit
No safe zone: Getting insurance
The targeted citizen: Civic life.
Where can mathematical models go wrong
1. Teacher evaluation
2. Job application
3. Crime monitoring
What is the problem 1 to 3?
- Relying on previous human experience (e.g. Based on discrimination)
- Little possibility of human intervention / appeal
4. Facebook newsfeed
- Many of us are unaware it happens; and even if we are aware, …
Facebook:
art versus
algorithms