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{"id":15571,"date":"2014-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=585"},"modified":"2014-02-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T00:00:00","slug":"technical-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/02\/technical-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Technical bias"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Douglas Rushkoff (Program or Be Programmed<\/a>) argues that we don\u2019t think enough about how our new technologies run, or how they are biased.<\/p>\n

Most of us know how to use software; few know how to make it, and we don\u2019t think about how those who do make it are making their decisions, how their decisions shape our use of their programs. Google searches provide an illustration: \u201cEvery Google search is\u2014at
\nleast for most of us\u2014a Hail Mary pass into the datasphere,
\nrequesting something from an opaque black box. How does it
\nknow what is relevant? How is it making its decisions? Why
\ncan\u2019t the corporation in charge tell us?\u201d (17).<\/p>\n

Technologies always have biases, \u201ca tendency to promote one set of behaviors over another.\u201d for instance: \u201cIt may be true that \u2018guns don\u2019t kill people, people
\nkill people\u2019; but guns are a technology more biased to killing
\nthan, say, clock radios. Televisions are biased toward people
\nsitting still in couches and watching. Automobiles are biased
\ntoward motion, individuality, and living in the suburbs. Oral
\nculture is biased toward communicating in person, while
\nwritten culture is biased toward communication that doesn\u2019t
\nhappen between people in the same time and place. Film
\nphotography and its expensive processes were biased toward
\nscarcity, while digital photography is biased toward immediate
\nand widespread distribution. Some cameras even upload
\nphotos to websites automatically, turning the click of the
\nshutter into an act of global publishing\u201d (20).<\/p>\n

If we are unaware of the biases, we\u2019ll be tossed about by those biases, and so Rushkoff\u2019s book offers \u201cten commandments\u201d for resisting the biases of the internet and keeping our use of technology human. For instance, contemporary technologies are \u201cbiased against time altogether,\u201d and thus detach us \u201cfrom the rhythms, cycles, and continuity on which we depend for coherence\u201d (22). Therefore, the first commandment is, \u201cBe not always on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or: \u201cOur digital networks are biased toward
\nsocial connections\u2014toward contact .\u201d Thus, Rushkoff thinks that \u201cany effort to redefine
\nor hijack those connections for profit end up compromising\u00a0the integrity of the network itself, and compromising the
\nreal promise of contact\u201d (93-4). But the same social media technology can be monetized: \u201cThe anger people feel over a social networking site\u2019s everchanging
\npolicies really has less to do with any invasion of
\ntheir privacy than the monetization of their friendships. The
\ninformation gleaned from their activity is being used for other
\nthan social purposes\u2014and this feels creepy. Friends are not
\nbought and sold\u201d (94). Therefore the seventh commandment: Do not sell your friends.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"