Evgeny Morozov: Big Data, Small Politics: Algorithmic Regulation and Its Pitfalls

Evgeny Morozov, Contributing Editor, The New Republic; Twitter @evgenymorozov

The advent of Big Data, enabled by the proliferation of cheap sensors and data-storing devices, has presented us with new forms of tackling social problems from obesity to climate change. While some celebrate the virtues of self-tracking, others laud the benefits of automating certain parts of the political process through algorithmic regulation. Morozov will discuss some of the ethical implications of these new problem-solving mechanisms, situating them within a much longer history of using cybernetic technologies for the purposes of self-regulation.

 
April 10, 2014