Books and Articles that have caught my eye lately...

(not much fiction here, but there might be a little from time to time)

I admit it that I am a bit of a space nerd. I love space, good space movies, stories about space, and reading about space science. So, it is not uncommon for me to have something related to science and space on my current reading list. For now, however, the space that seems to be captivating me is not out of this world, but is instead hidden amidst the computations and training sets used by algorithms. The space I am interested in is where decisions are being made, information is being produced, and conclusions are being drawn, without human operators necessarily seeing what is informing those inferences. In many ways that inner space is the subject of just as much drama, imagination, conflict, and imperialism as that outside our planet. As a result, I gravitated toward many of the books I am reading right now because I am trying to make sense of what that data-informed, AI driven, inferred 'truth' means for human society.

One of the books that I am reading right now is trying to make a connection between algorithims and race. In it the writer examines how biases about women of color are embedded in popular search engines as revealed through their results. From the description: Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color. I am interested in this book both because of its explicit connection of algorithmic bias to identity and because it also implies a connection to unrestrained capitalism, which reminds me of Cathy O'Neil's book Weapons of Math Destruction. I'll post an update when I've finished it.

Another book that I am reading right now is also making a connection between algorithmic decision making and race - it argues that this kind of delegation of decision making to unsupervised, automated programs is disproportionately affecting people of color and the poor. From the book summary, it investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. I've not started this one yet, and the author is coming to speak at UMass in the fall. It hasn't received great reviews, and I am curious to dig in and see what I think about it.