Archive

Humans as Software Extensions

What is this condition? I would summarize it as people extending computational systems by offering their bodies, their senses, and their cognition. And specifically, bodies and minds that can be easily plugged in and later easily be discarded. So bodies and minds algorithmically managed and under the permanent pressure of constant availability, efficiency, and perpetual self-optimization.

Douglas Rushkoff WebVisions Portland 2016 Keynote

Google just has to grow. It has to keep growing. But Google grows at its own peril. Google grew so much that what happened? It outgrew Google. Google had to become what? Alphabet. Now what is Alphabet? Alphabet is not Google. Alphabet is a holding company. So Google’s new business as Alphabet is to do what? It’s to buy and sell technology companies. So, once a company becomes just too big to flip anymore, it becomes a flipper of other companies.

Response to Tarleton Gillespie’s “The Relevance of Algorithms”

It seems to me that to confront algorithms on their own terms, we may have to modify our preoccupation with the politics of knowledge and take up an interest in the politics of logistical engineering.