Research Catalog

Title

Outnumbered : from Facebook and Google to fake news and filter-bubbles -- the algorithms that control our lives / David Sumpter.

Author

Sumpter, David, 1973-

Publication

• London : Bloomsbury Sigma, [2018]
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

272 pages : illustrations; 22 cm

Summary

"Algorithms are running our society, and we don't really know what they are up to. Our increasing reliance on technology and the internet has opened a window for mathematicians and data researchers to gaze through into our lives. Using the data they are constantly collecting about where we travel, where we shop, what we buy and what interests us, they can begin to predict our daily habits. But how reliable is this data? Without understanding what mathematics can and can't do, it is impossible to get a handle on how it is changing our lives. In this book, David Sumpter takes an algorithm-strewn journey to the dark side of mathematics. He investigates the equations that analyse us, influence us and will (maybe) become like us, answering questions such as: Who are Cambridge Analytica? And what are they doing with our data? How does Facebook build a 100-dimensional picture of your personality? Are Google algorithms racist and sexist? Why do election predictions fail so drastically? Are algorithms that are designed to find criminals making terrible mistakes? What does the future hold as we relinquish our decision-making to machines? Featuring interviews with those working at the cutting edge of algorithm research, including Alex Kogan from the Cambridge Analytica story, along with a healthy dose of mathematical self-experiment, Outnumbered will explain how mathematics and statistics work in the real world, and what we should and shouldn't worry about. A lot of people feel outnumbered by algorithms--don't be one of them."--Jacket.

Subject

• Internet > Mathematical models > Social aspects
• Internet marketing > Mathematical models > Social aspects
• Internet advertising > Mathematical models > Social aspects
• Social media > Mathematical models > Social aspects
• Fake news > Mathematical models > Social aspects
• Mathematical models > Social aspects
• Human behavior > Mathematical models
• Algorithms > Social aspects
• Social indicators > Mathematical models
• Big data > Social aspects

Note

• "Featuring Cambridge Analytica"--Cover.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-264) and index.

Contents

part 1. Analysing us: Finding Banksy ; Make some noise ; The principal components of friendship ; One hundred dimensions of you ; Cambridge hyperbolytica ; Impossibly unbiased ; The data alchemists -- part 2. Influencing us: Nate Silver vs the rest of us ; We "also liked" the internet ; The popularity contest ; Bubbling up ; Football matters ; Who reads fake news? -- part 3. Becoming us: Learning to be sexist ; The only thought between the decimal ; Kick your ass at "Space invaders" -- The bacterial brain -- Back to reality.

Call Number

JFD 18-3215

ISBN

• 9781472947437
• 1472947436
• 9781472947413
• 147294741X
• 9781472947420 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2017473502

OCLC

1035374425

Author

Sumpter, David, 1973- author.

Title

Outnumbered : from Facebook and Google to fake news and filter-bubbles -- the algorithms that control our lives / David Sumpter.

Publisher

London : Bloomsbury Sigma, [2018]

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-264) and index.

Local Note

YBP corrected record

Research Call Number

JFD 18-3215