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03300aam a2200385 i 4500 001 2B4786CCDA5311E7BD35112897128E48 003 SILO 005 20171206010017 008 161128s2017 maua b 001 0 eng 010 $a 2016030924 020 $a 0262035928 (hardcover : alk. paper) 020 $a 9780262035927 (hardcover : alk. paper) 035 $a (OCoLC)958795990 040 $a DLC $b eng $e rda $c DLC $d BTCTA $d YDX $d BDX $d MYG $d I3U $d CIA $d RRR $d OBE $d CTU $d OCLCO $d IOK $d SILO 042 $a pcc 050 00 $a HM851 $b .F5565 2017 082 00 $a 303.48/34 $2 23 100 1 $a Finn, Ed. 245 10 $a What algorithms want : $b imagination in the age of computing / $c Ed Finn. 246 30 $a Imagination in the age of computing 264 1 $a Cambridge, MA : $b MIT Press, $c [2017] 300 $a viii, 257 pages : $b illustrations ; $c 24 cm 504 $a Includes bibliographical references and index. 505 0 $a 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. 520 $a We depend on--we believe in--algorithms to help us get a ride, choose which book to buy, execute a mathematical proof. It's as if we think of code as a magic spell, an incantation to reveal what we need to know and even what we want. Humans have always believed that certain invocations--the marriage vow, the shaman's curse--do not merely describe the world but make it. Computation casts a cultural shadow that is shaped by this long tradition of magical thinking. 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. Finn argues that the algorithm deploys concepts from the idealized space of computation in a messy reality, with unpredictable and sometimes fascinating results. Drawing on sources that range from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash to Diderot's EncyclopeÌdie, 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 Siri, the rise of algorithmic aesthetics at Netflix, Ian Bogost's satiric Facebook game Cow Clicker, and the revolutionary economics of Bitcoin. He describes Google's goal of anticipating our questions, Uber's cartoon maps and black box accounting, and what Facebook tells us about programmable value, among other things. 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--Publisher website. 650 0 $a Information technology $x Social aspects. 650 0 $a Computers $x Social aspects. 650 0 $a Algorithms $x Social aspects. 856 42 $z Additional Information at Google Books $u http://books.google.com/books?vid=isbn9780262035927 941 $a 3 952 $l PLAX964 $d 20230718092833.0 952 $l GAAX314 $d 20180118010110.0 952 $l SOAX911 $d 20171206010852.0 956 $a http://locator.silo.lib.ia.us/search.cgi?index_0=id&term_0=2B4786CCDA5311E7BD35112897128E48 994 $a C0 $b IOKInitiate Another SILO Locator Search