Algorithms Technology Culture – Tobias Matzner

This, in turn, is reflected by many algorithms dis- tributing the load. Energy is not the only form of resource that is used by the computing industry. The parts that make up the internet, but also all our shiny appliances, need to be built, transported, and some of them maintained. This needs many of the rare elements of the planet, so-called “rare earths.” It needs what is known as “conflict resources,” that is, minerals that are exploited to finance wars and other conflicts.

Yet, also many other resources are extracted in adverse working conditions and with poor payment. This is a moment where the limits of the situated research perspective I follow become salient. In this chapter, I discuss the co-constitutive relations of algorithms and material factors – not material aspects of computing per se. This would be much too big a topic and many excellent studies have been dedicated to it (Ensmenger 2018; Hazas and Nathan 2019; Parks and Starosielski 2015). At a certain point, the co-constitutive relationship becomes pretty one-way.

Certainly, there is a need for rare earths, energy, etc., due to the success of computing that involves all of the relations dis- cussed in this book. Yet, a lot of the specific circumstances in which the mining happens, the energy is created, etc., do not differ too much from other demands of Western industries. It is structured by the same re- appearing patterns of re-emerging colonial structures, global exploitation of cheap labor, waste, and pollution being externalized to the global South, generally externalizing costs by the celebrated industries driving innovation, etc.

Ensmenger (2018) draws parallels between the nuclear and the IT industries in this regard. Thus, I will refer the readers to that literature and continue focusing on how resources “look like from the perspective of al- gorithms” but also how algorithms are co-constituted by resource demands. Particularly, the externalization of resource usage can be traced to many common elements of algorithmic practices.

Often, for example, discussions of hardware would evoke “Moore’s Law.” This goes back to the electrical engineer Gordon Moore, who in 1965 observed that the complexity of integrated circuits roughly doubled each year (Moore 1965).

Algorithms: Technology, Culture, Politics develops a relational, situated approach to algorithms. It takes a middle ground between theories that give the algorithm a singular and stable meaning in using it as a central analytic category for the contemporary society and theories that dissolve the term into the details of empirical studies. The book discusses algorithms in relation to hardware and material conditions, code, data, and subjects such as users and programmers, but also “data doubles.” The individual chapters bridge critical discussions on bias, exclusion, or responsibility with the necessary detail on the contemporary state of information technology.

The examples include state-of-the-art applications of machine learning, such as self-driving cars, and large language models, such as GPT. The book will be of interest to everyone engaging critically with algorithms, particularly in the social sciences, media studies, STS, political theory, or philosophy. With its broad scope, it can serve as a high-level introduction that picks up and builds on more than two decades of critical research on algorithms. Tobias Matzner is a professor of Digital Cultures and Digital Humanities at Paderborn University, Germany.

His research focuses on the intersections of technology, culture, and politics, with a particular focus on algorithms and machine learning. ALGORITHMS Technology, Culture, Politics Tobias Matzner First published 2024 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2024 Tobias Matzner The right of Tobias Matzner to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Names: Matzner, Tobias, author.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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