Algorithms That Manipulate Its Users in Various Ways

Algorithms That Manipulate Its Users in Various Ways

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Algorithms That Manipulate Its Users in Various Ways

PAPER #4

Prof. Michael Liska| Expos 355:101

Readings: Joseph Stiglitz, “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society” (New Humanities Reader)

Franklin Foer, “Mark Zuckerberg’s War on Free Will” (linked on Sakai as an excerpt from World Without Mind)

Prompt:

Franklin Foer discusses how Facebook, through its use of algorithms that manipulate its users in various ways, “outsources” independent thought and encourages what Foer calls “mechanical thinking”. Joseph Stiglitz outlines how a small societal elite can manipulate the economy to unfairly reward itself while depriving lower-class workers of fair compensation for their efforts. He calls this activity “rent seeking”, and though he applies it primarily to the financial sector, its definition can be more broadly applied to any industry or elite that is financially rewarded in a way that is greater than their actual creation of wealth.

In a well-developed essay that makes use of the texts above, please answer the following question: In what ways can mechanical thinking contribute to the process of rent seeking?

Questions to get you started:

(Please note: these questions are here to provide you with some relevant starting points for your thinking and prewriting. You do not need to address all (or any) of these questions specifically in your essay)

• How might Facebook’s activities be seen as rent seeking behavior?
• Stiglitz claims that the forces that create inequality are “self-reinforcing”. Can you think of ways in which mechanical thinking might also be “self-reinforcing”?
• How might a customer base whose thinking is more predictable ease the task of rent seekers in extracting wealth unfairly?

Rough Draft Due: As a hard copy in class on Wednesday Nov. 13th. Please also upload (as a Microsoft Word attachment) to Paper 4 (Rough Draft) on our Canvas site before class on Wednesday Nov. 13th.

Second Rough Draft Due: As a hard copy in class on Monday Nov. 18th.

Final Draft Due: Please upload (as an attachment) to Paper 4 (Final Draft) on our Canvas site before class on Wednesday Nov. 20th.

Late rough drafts will result in a half-letter grade deduction from the final draft of Paper 1. Late final drafts will result in a full-letter grade deduction from the final draft of Paper 1.

Required formatting: stapled, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-pt. font (Times New Roman), MLA format (Your headers, page numbers, and quotations should be formatted properly. See Keys for Writers.)

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