Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 71.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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        Date: 2023-06-03 05:34:43+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: studies of algorithmic prejudice: surprised?

Here's a serious follow-up question--with thanks to Tim Smithers, Robin
Burke and others for the responses to my inquiry. Very helpful indeed.
But looking at what I and others have written, I wonder why the
detection and exposure of this (artificially unconscious) prejudice,
however correct and thoroughly pursued, is so unsatisfying? By analogy
to other, older sorts of crime, I wonder why the surprise that something
built by homo sapiens sapiens turns out to bring with it, as it gets
technically better and better, more and more of the imprint of its origins? 
And then I wonder about the drive to rigorous perfection and purity in
the digital, frustrated like all those that have preceded it. What is to
be learned from all this?

That there is quite a role for the digital humanities to play?

Other questions most welcome.

Yours,
WM
--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews;  Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk


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