| Technology -- Social aspects |
| Technology -- Moral and ethical aspects |
| Algorithms |
| Technology and ethics |
| Algorism |
Available:
Library | Shelf Number | Shelf Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Fairhaven-Millicent | 303 FRY 2018 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... New Bedford Free Public Library | 303.483 FRY 2018 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Richards Memorial Library | 303.483 F945 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
If you were accused of a crime, who would you rather decide your sentence--a mathematically consistent algorithm incapable of empathy or a compassionate human judge prone to bias and error? What if you want to buy a driverless car and must choose between one programmed to save as many lives as possible and another that prioritizes the lives of its own passengers? And would you agree to share your family's full medical history if you were told that it would help researchers find a cure for cancer?
These are just some of the dilemmas that we are beginning to face as we approach the age of the algorithm, when it feels as if the machines reign supreme. Already, these lines of code are telling us what to watch, where to go, whom to date, and even whom to send to jail. But as we rely on algorithms to automate big, important decisions--in crime, justice, healthcare, transportation, and money--they raise questions about what we want our world to look like. What matters most: Helping doctors with diagnosis or preserving privacy? Protecting victims of crime or preventing innocent people being falsely accused?
Hello World takes us on a tour through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us on a daily basis. Mathematician Hannah Fry reveals their inner workings, showing us how algorithms are written and implemented, and demonstrates the ways in which human bias can literally be written into the code. By weaving in relatable, real world stories with accessible explanations of the underlying mathematics that power algorithms, Hello World helps us to determine their power, expose their limitations, and examine whether they really are improvement on the human systems they replace.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fry, a University College London math professor, invites readers to examine how algorithms affect their lives. She guides her audience through understanding what algorithms are-"simply a series of logical instructions that show how to accomplish a task"-and thoughtfully commends on how they are used, such as in the fields of medicine, criminal justice, art, and transportation, to help people make more consistent decisions and to improve public safety. Fry maintains that the most important consideration isn't the technical sophistication and complexity of an algorithm, but the reliability and trustworthiness of the people in charge of it. She cautions that "data and algorithms don't just have the power to predict our shopping habits" but also to "rob someone of their freedom." To this end, she describes instances in which the use of algorithms has gone awry, such as when an FBI expert's confidence in facial recognition technology led to a man being held in a maximum security cell for a crime he didn't commit. These case studies are coupled with difficult questions about how algorithms should be used: for instance, is society willing to give up individualized justice for consistency in sentencing? Throughout, Fry counsels the use of algorithms to complement and enhance human performance, not replace it. This is an intriguing take on a timely topic. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Denver police acted quickly and violently when facial-recognition software identified financial advisor Steve Talley as the perpetrator of two area bank robberies. But precisely because that computerized identification proved erroneous and costly and painful for Talley Fry highlights this episode as symptomatic of a problem growing ever more inescapable in a world remade by computer algorithms. No Luddite, Fry recognizes the immense benefits of relying on computers in diagnosing cancer, assessing parole risks, protecting drivers, and marketing entertainment: she hopes that society continues to find new ways to employ algorithmic servants. But in Talley's traumatic experience and in many similar ones Fry recounts she sees reasons for caution. Indeed, she reminds readers that the world avoided nuclear war in 1983 only because a Russian military officer defied protocol by ignoring a computer algorithm mistakenly signaling an American missile attack. Even when their algorithms deliver completely accurate results, Fry warns, computer networks can imperil personal privacy and individual autonomy. To optimize the benefits of using algorithms while reducing the dangers, Fry calls for a complementarity wedding computer efficiency with human wisdom, a complementarity already emerging in medicine. Fry further endorses measures making algorithms more transparent to the public and easing appeals to human authority by those adversely affected by their use. A lucid and timely analysis.--Bryce Christensen Copyright 2018 Booklist
Choice Review
In today's world, many important aspects of life depend on algorithms--step-by-step procedures for solving problems and making decisions--which are implemented on computers. Robots, automation, medical diagnosis, decisions on sentencing in the justice system, identification of serial murderers, design of driverless cars, face recognition … the list of applications of algorithms is long, and it increases continually. Fry (University College London) gives understandable accounts of various algorithms in various areas, stressing their value as well as their potential to lead to disaster if relied on too heavily. Her conclusion is that this negative potential is not a reason for downplaying their fundamental importance. But it is a compelling cause for making sure that human control is not abandoned completely. To borrow a famous line from the French statesman Clémenceau about war and generals, life is too serious a business to be left to algorithms; even so, algorithms are going to play a growing role in daily life. This thought-provoking book conveys important lessons for an algorithm-driven world. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --R. Bharath, emeritus, Northern Michigan University
Guardian Review
A mathematician and advocate for technology challenges the influence of algorithms and calls for a better understanding of what were giving away Are you a concerned citizen of the modern world? Do you ever worry that algorithms are stealing your data? Do you secretly have little idea what algorithms and data actually are? Then Hello World is for you. With refreshing simplicity, Fry explains what AI, machine learning and complicated algorithms really mean, providing some succinct explanations of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, driverless cars and many other unnerving modern phenomena. She asks the reader to consider some difficult questions: would you hand over your medical records to a faceless company if doing so might improve treatment for everyone? Should a driverless car prioritise protecting its owner, or the child she is about to run over? Should a judge or a computer calculate whether a prisoner is likely to reoffend? And in each case, who gets to make the rules? Fry, a mathematician, is a passionate advocate for maths and technology, but keen that we dont put too much faith in them. In one chapter, she explains how a man who nearly followed his satnav off a cliff is similar to the chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and to voters being manipulated by social media. We have somehow managed to be simultaneously dismissive of algorithms, intimidated by them and in awe of their capabilities, she argues. Yet humans arent perfect, either. Judges are biased. Doctors fail to spot cancer. Pilots crash. But working together, human and AI-machine can be the perfect team. Fry makes a convincing case for the urgent need for algorithmic regulation, and wants the public to understand the compromises we are making. And, in the case of Facebook and users data, how cheaply we were bought. This book illustrates why good science writers are essential. We have a tendency to overtrust anything we dont understand, Fry says. And if we dont understand it, those difficult questions will be answered by those who do pharmaceutical companies, malign governments and the like. Its time to pull back the curtain on the algorithms that shape our lives. Because, as Fry says, the future doesnt just happen. We create it. - Katy Guest.
Kirkus Review
London-based mathematician Fry (The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the Search for the Ultimate Equation, 2015, etc.) ponders thinking machines, the trust we put in them, and the implications for the future.Forget about the singularity: The thinking machines are already upon us, and they make extraordinarily complex decisions, from how to battle cancer to whether to send someone to jail. The central question about artificial intelligence and the algorithms that drive it is whether we can trust them to do the right thing, especially if we are ceding decision-making power to mathematical constructs and probabilities. As Fry notes, algorithms alone can push us into some uncomfortable territorye.g., the sentencing of criminal defendants, a process that, though perhaps driven by an altruistic wish for truly blind justice, puts members of ethnic minorities at a distinct disadvantage: The poorer and less educated a person, in many instances, the more a risk for nonappearance or flight he or she is judged to be. There may be reasons for that failure to show up in court; for one thing, as Fry asks, "do they have access to suitable transport to get there?" Programming the algorithm to account for "societal imbalances" may be one solution, and AI may be able to get around some of the discrimination that would bias a human judge. Still, programmers are people, too. In theory, technology is morally neutrala drone can be used to take photographs or to kill peopleso what really unfolds is what Fry describes at the outset: "Each [algorithm] is inextricably connected to the people who build and use it." The author writes ably and accessibly of some of the thornier problems, not just in the administration of justice and health care but also in matters like the Bayesian inferences that go into operating driverless cars safely and using algorithms to revise film scripts to "make a movie more profitable at the box office."A well-constructed tour of technology and its discontentstimely, too, given the increasing prominence of AI in our daily lives. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
This latest book from Fry (The Mathematics of Love) explores the potential for algorithms used in automated systems for everything from finding patterns in criminal activity to diagnosing cancer. While not as serious in tone as Safiya Noble's Algorithms of Oppression, it nonetheless raises hard questions on the ethics and hidden dangers of relying too heavily on artificial intelligence. Fry shares a view of data science in action from marketing to police work to medicine. The beauty of this book is how easily she defines the complicated processes behind current developments in tech today. The neural networks for image recognition and autonomous cars, along with machine learning algorithms is conveyed using everyday examples. Anglophiles will appreciate the British spellings and writing voice that is sometimes cynical, semipolitical, and evangelistic. VERDICT A readable work of complicated computer science and mathematical treatments of data that engages, delights, and informs. Fry incites readers to consider both the strengths and weaknesses of human and machine, science and the scientist before we render full control to algorithms to run our daily lives.-Nancy Marksbury, Keuka Coll., Keuka Park, NY © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| A note on the title | p. ix |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Power | p. 5 |
| Data | p. 25 |
| Justice | p. 49 |
| Medicine | p. 79 |
| Cars | p. 113 |
| Crime | p. 141 |
| Art | p. 175 |
| Conclusion | p. 197 |
| Acknowledgements | p. 203 |
| Photograph Credits | p. 207 |
| Notes | p. 209 |
| Index | p. 235 |