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Technologies of Speculation: The Limits of Knowledge in a Data-Driven Society
An inquiry into what we can know in an age of surveillance and algorithms
Knitting together contemporary technologies of datafication to reveal a broader, underlying shift in what counts as knowledge, Technologies of Speculation reframes today’s major moral and political controversies around algorithms and artificial intelligence. How many times we toss and turn in our sleep, our voluminous social media activity and location data, our average resting heart rate and body new technologies of state and self-surveillance promise to re-enlighten the black boxes of our bodies and minds. But Sun-ha Hong suggests that the burden to know and to digest this information at alarming rates is stripping away the liberal subject that ‘knows for themselves’, and risks undermining the pursuit of a rational public. What we choose to track, and what kind of data is extracted from us, shapes a society in which my own experience and sensation is increasingly overruled by data-driven systems.
From the rapidly growing Quantified Self community to large-scale dragnet data collection in the name of counter-terrorism and drone warfare, Hong argues that data’s promise of objective truth results in new cultures of speculation. In his analysis of the Snowden affair, Hong demonstrates an entirely new way of thinking through what we could know, and the political and philosophical stakes of the belief that data equates to knowledge. When we simply cannot process all the data at our fingertips, he argues, we look past the inconvenient and the complicated to favor the comprehensible. In the process, racial stereotypes and other longstanding prejudices re-enter our newest technologies by the back door. Hong reveals the moral and philosophical equations embedded into the algorithmic eye that now follows us all.
Knitting together contemporary technologies of datafication to reveal a broader, underlying shift in what counts as knowledge, Technologies of Speculation reframes today’s major moral and political controversies around algorithms and artificial intelligence. How many times we toss and turn in our sleep, our voluminous social media activity and location data, our average resting heart rate and body new technologies of state and self-surveillance promise to re-enlighten the black boxes of our bodies and minds. But Sun-ha Hong suggests that the burden to know and to digest this information at alarming rates is stripping away the liberal subject that ‘knows for themselves’, and risks undermining the pursuit of a rational public. What we choose to track, and what kind of data is extracted from us, shapes a society in which my own experience and sensation is increasingly overruled by data-driven systems.
From the rapidly growing Quantified Self community to large-scale dragnet data collection in the name of counter-terrorism and drone warfare, Hong argues that data’s promise of objective truth results in new cultures of speculation. In his analysis of the Snowden affair, Hong demonstrates an entirely new way of thinking through what we could know, and the political and philosophical stakes of the belief that data equates to knowledge. When we simply cannot process all the data at our fingertips, he argues, we look past the inconvenient and the complicated to favor the comprehensible. In the process, racial stereotypes and other longstanding prejudices re-enter our newest technologies by the back door. Hong reveals the moral and philosophical equations embedded into the algorithmic eye that now follows us all.
294 pages, Paperback
Published July 28, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 28, 2020
"The moral and political question, then, is not simply whether datafication delivers better knowledge but how it transforms what counts in our society: what counts for one's guilt and innocence, as grounds for suspicion and surveillance, as standards for health and happiness".
I took my time reading and appreciating this book--not because of my hectic schedule with work and school--but because each chapter was written in such a way that deserved to be digested properly (along with highlighting many chunks and sentences that will prove useful in reflecting upon further in my academic life). Hong's elaborate lexicon may pose a challenge, frankly, for readers outside of the field of media studies, yet every well-crafted sentence further emphasizes the gravity of his points.
The ubiquitous nature of "smart" machines that track our data (whether via state or self-surveillance) over time has developed 'fabrications' of 'objective' truths pulled from our quantified selves that are actually not as reliable as it claims. This process narrows down such messy data to make"certain kinds of truth count", deeply impacting the ways in which we can understand our own bodies, relationships, and lives. We willingly take part in the transaction of our data for becoming a better/improved individual-- the smart machines claiming to know more about ourselves via its machinic sensibility (of what we cannot measure by ourselves alone).
When such fabrications"achieve a status of knowledge", it often undertakes a justification for its initial gathering (of data) in the first place--Hong refers to the well-known exposure of the NSA's data collection via the Snowden affair, as well as drawing upon multiple examples of state justification of tracking "lone wolves" in the name of their potential futures in terrorism and "what-ifs" (making this work also one I'd recommend to those interested in the links between surveillance & terrorism). A point that stuck out to me here: although Snowden's reveal of the NSA's inner-workings and extreme surveillance of the population confirmed deep-rooted suspicions, extending our "knowability"--there is still a large expanse of "unknown unknowns" that is kept from us (and we are constantly reminded as a result of reflecting upon this new "knowledge").
Through this book, I also learned so,somuch, which is what I especially value in a work of non-fiction and analysis. I don't think that I can effectively summarize all of its key takeaways in the way it deserves through such a short review here. I greatly recommend this for any media/communications student eager to invest in critically understanding our data-driven world, or for any voracious reading with great interest in AI & philosophy studies.
Sapere aude!
I took my time reading and appreciating this book--not because of my hectic schedule with work and school--but because each chapter was written in such a way that deserved to be digested properly (along with highlighting many chunks and sentences that will prove useful in reflecting upon further in my academic life). Hong's elaborate lexicon may pose a challenge, frankly, for readers outside of the field of media studies, yet every well-crafted sentence further emphasizes the gravity of his points.
The ubiquitous nature of "smart" machines that track our data (whether via state or self-surveillance) over time has developed 'fabrications' of 'objective' truths pulled from our quantified selves that are actually not as reliable as it claims. This process narrows down such messy data to make"certain kinds of truth count", deeply impacting the ways in which we can understand our own bodies, relationships, and lives. We willingly take part in the transaction of our data for becoming a better/improved individual-- the smart machines claiming to know more about ourselves via its machinic sensibility (of what we cannot measure by ourselves alone).
When such fabrications"achieve a status of knowledge", it often undertakes a justification for its initial gathering (of data) in the first place--Hong refers to the well-known exposure of the NSA's data collection via the Snowden affair, as well as drawing upon multiple examples of state justification of tracking "lone wolves" in the name of their potential futures in terrorism and "what-ifs" (making this work also one I'd recommend to those interested in the links between surveillance & terrorism). A point that stuck out to me here: although Snowden's reveal of the NSA's inner-workings and extreme surveillance of the population confirmed deep-rooted suspicions, extending our "knowability"--there is still a large expanse of "unknown unknowns" that is kept from us (and we are constantly reminded as a result of reflecting upon this new "knowledge").
Through this book, I also learned so,somuch, which is what I especially value in a work of non-fiction and analysis. I don't think that I can effectively summarize all of its key takeaways in the way it deserves through such a short review here. I greatly recommend this for any media/communications student eager to invest in critically understanding our data-driven world, or for any voracious reading with great interest in AI & philosophy studies.
Sapere aude!
March 1, 2021
Fabulous book. You definitely need to follow along actively because some of the concepts require you to dig in and really think through the philosophical topics it bring up in ways we don’t often do in our day to day lives, but the rewards of reading this are well worth the effort. Sun-ha is a talented writer and this book is chock full of crucial considerations for our digital era. I’ve been recommending it to everyone I know!
February 23, 2021
Good for a general audience interesting in data issues
July 5, 2021
Very philosophical read and very difficult to follow.
April 8, 2022
Interesting ideas but the writing is too dense and I often found myself asking what the point being made was
January 9, 2021
How the datafication of people conflicts with liberal values and establishes a groundless truth as the status quo. Interesting but unnecessarily verbose and sometimes hard to follow what the central argument was and how material related, but I am also not used to reading such philosophical text. The conclusion chapter did a good job at providing a succinct overview.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews