What Algorithms Want – with Ed Finn
30 November 2017 | LIBRARY London, London, UK
Virtual Futures presents Arizona State University’s Ed Finn in conversation on his new book, What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing.
Join us as Ed shares his thoughts on how the algorithm has its roots not only in mathematical logic but also in cybernetics, philosophy, and magical thinking.
He will examine the development of intelligent assistants like Siri, the rise of algorithmic aesthetics at Netflix and the revolutionary economics of Bitcoin. Drawing on sources that range from Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash to Diderot’s Encyclopédie, from Adam Smith to the Star Trek computer, Finn will explore the gap between theoretical ideas and pragmatic instructions.
Ed Finn is Founding Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he is also Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering and the Department of English.
In conversation with Luke Robert Mason (Director, Virtual Futures).