The Feel of Algorithms

Minna Ruckenstein

Published by University of California Press 2023

The Feel of Algorithms

Minna Ruckenstein

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520394568

Overview
Contents

About this book

Why do we feel excited, afraid, and frustrated by algorithms?

The Feel of Algorithms brings relatable first-person accounts of what it means to experience algorithms emotionally alongside interdisciplinary social science research, to reveal how political and economic processes are felt in the everyday. People’s algorithm stories might fail to separate fact and misconception, and circulate wishful, erroneous, or fearful views of digital technologies. Yet rather than treating algorithmic folklore as evidence of ignorance, this novel book explains why personal anecdotes are an important source of algorithmic knowledge. Minna Ruckenstein argues that we get to know algorithms by feeling their actions and telling stories about them. The Feel of Algorithms shows how taking everyday algorithmic emotions seriously balances the current discussion, which has a tendency to draw conclusions based on celebratory or oppositional responses to imagined future effects. An everyday focus zooms into experiences of pleasure, fear, and irritation, highlighting how political aims and ethical tensions play out in visions, practices, and emotional responses. This book shows that feelings aid in recognizing troubling practices, and also calls for alternatives that are currently ignored or suppressed.

Author / Editor information

Ruckenstein Minna :

Minna Ruckenstein is Professor in Emerging Technologies in Society at the University of Helsinki.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Structures of Feeling in Algorithmic Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
2 Coevolving with Algorithms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
3 The Digital Geography of Fear Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
4 Friction in Algorithmic Relations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
5 Care for Algorithmic Futures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
Ways Forward Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 240

eBook

Published: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780520394568