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What algorithms want : imagination in the age of computing / Ed Finn.

By: Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Publication details: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2018.Description: viii, 257 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780262536042 (paperback)
  • 0262536048 (paperback)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 303.48/34
LOC classification:
  • HM 851 F514w 2018
Contents:
Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- What is an algorithm? -- Building the star trek computer -- House of cards: the aesthetics of abstraction -- Coding cow clicker: the work of algorithms -- Counting bitcoin -- Coda: the algorithmic imagination -- Notes -- Figure credits -- Works cited -- Index.
Summary: We depend on--we believein--algorithms to help us get a ride, choose which book to buy, execute a mathematical proof. In this book, Ed Finn considers how the algorithm--in practical terms, "a method for solving a problem"--Has its roots not only in mathematical logic but also in cybernetics, philosophy, and magical thinking. Drawing on sources that range from Neal stephenson's Snow Crash to Diderot's Encyclopedie, from Adam Smith to the Star Trek computer, Finn explores the gap between theoretical ideas and pragmatic instructions. He examines the development of intelligent assistants like Apple's Siri, the rise of algorithmic aesthetics at Netflix, Ian Bogost's satiric Facebook game Cow Clicker, and the revolutionary economics of Bitcoin. Finn describes Google's goal of anticipating our questions, Uber's cartoon maps and black box accounting, and what Facebook tells us about programmable value. If we want to understand the gap between abstraction and messy reality, Finn argues, we need to build a model of "algorithmic reading" and scholarship that attends to process, spearheading a new experimental humanities
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Holdings
Item type Current library Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Libro Libro Biblioteca Juan Bosch Biblioteca Juan Bosch Ciencias Sociales Ciencias Sociales (3er. Piso) HM 851 F514w 2018 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00000170884

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- What is an algorithm? -- Building the star trek computer -- House of cards: the aesthetics of abstraction -- Coding cow clicker: the work of algorithms -- Counting bitcoin -- Coda: the algorithmic imagination -- Notes -- Figure credits -- Works cited -- Index.

We depend on--we believein--algorithms to help us get a ride, choose which book to buy, execute a mathematical proof. In this book, Ed Finn considers how the algorithm--in practical terms, "a method for solving a problem"--Has its roots not only in mathematical logic but also in cybernetics, philosophy, and magical thinking. Drawing on sources that range from Neal stephenson's Snow Crash to Diderot's Encyclopedie, from Adam Smith to the Star Trek computer, Finn explores the gap between theoretical ideas and pragmatic instructions. He examines the development of intelligent assistants like Apple's Siri, the rise of algorithmic aesthetics at Netflix, Ian Bogost's satiric Facebook game Cow Clicker, and the revolutionary economics of Bitcoin. Finn describes Google's goal of anticipating our questions, Uber's cartoon maps and black box accounting, and what Facebook tells us about programmable value. If we want to understand the gap between abstraction and messy reality, Finn argues, we need to build a model of "algorithmic reading" and scholarship that attends to process, spearheading a new experimental humanities

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