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    The Constitution of Algorithms

    Ground-Truthing, Programming, Formulating

    Part of Inside Technology

    Author Florian Jaton
    Foreword by Geoffrey C. Bowker
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    Paperback
    $60.00 US
    The MIT Press
    On sale Apr 27, 2021 | 400 Pages | 9780262542142
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    A laboratory study that investigates how algorithms come into existence.

    Algorithms--often associated with the terms big data, machine learning, or artificial intelligence--underlie the technologies we use every day, and disputes over the consequences, actual or potential, of new algorithms arise regularly. In this book, Florian Jaton offers a new way to study computerized methods, providing an account of where algorithms come from and how they are constituted, investigating the practical activities by which algorithms are progressively assembled rather than what they may suggest or require once they are assembled.
    Foreword ix
    Acknowledgments xi
    Introduction 1
    I Ground-Truthing 27
    1 Studying Computer Scientists 31
    2 A First Case Study 51
    II Programming 87
    3 Von Neumann's Draft, Electronic Brains, and Cognition 93
    4 A Second Case Study 135
    III Formulating 197
    5 Mathematics as a Science 203
    6 A Third Case Study 237
    Conclusion 283
    Glosary 291
    Notes 299
    References 325
    Index 365
    Florian Jaton is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the STS Lab at the University of Lausanne.
    Florian Jaton View titles by Florian Jaton
    “By marrying ethnography and hands-on practice of ground-truthing, programming, and formulating, Jaton discovers all the small but important details and practices that go into creating algorithms.” —TechTalks

    About

    A laboratory study that investigates how algorithms come into existence.

    Algorithms--often associated with the terms big data, machine learning, or artificial intelligence--underlie the technologies we use every day, and disputes over the consequences, actual or potential, of new algorithms arise regularly. In this book, Florian Jaton offers a new way to study computerized methods, providing an account of where algorithms come from and how they are constituted, investigating the practical activities by which algorithms are progressively assembled rather than what they may suggest or require once they are assembled.

    Table of Contents

    Foreword ix
    Acknowledgments xi
    Introduction 1
    I Ground-Truthing 27
    1 Studying Computer Scientists 31
    2 A First Case Study 51
    II Programming 87
    3 Von Neumann's Draft, Electronic Brains, and Cognition 93
    4 A Second Case Study 135
    III Formulating 197
    5 Mathematics as a Science 203
    6 A Third Case Study 237
    Conclusion 283
    Glosary 291
    Notes 299
    References 325
    Index 365

    Author

    Florian Jaton is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the STS Lab at the University of Lausanne.
    Florian Jaton View titles by Florian Jaton

    Praise

    “By marrying ethnography and hands-on practice of ground-truthing, programming, and formulating, Jaton discovers all the small but important details and practices that go into creating algorithms.” —TechTalks

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