[Air-L] Relevant fiction on all things data protection / technological progress / big-data marketing

Wed Sep 3 08:00:14 PDT 2014

Hi all,

"Super Sad True Love Story" by Gary Shteyngart is a great read. It's about a not-to-distant dystopian future where life in New York is dominated by media and retail. Everyone wears personal devices that can instantly transmit someone's credit ratings and attractiveness quotients. The two main characters, who stem from different backgrounds, form a relationship as NYC is systematically co-opted into a police state. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0812977866?pc_redir=1409109169&robot_redir=1

Enjoy!!

Heather Maxie 
@HFeds 

Sent from my iPhone upom which I blame any typos.

> On Sep 3, 2014, at 8:32 AM, Brian Butler <bsbutler at umd.edu> wrote:
> 
> Some "golden age" stories that do a good job of illustrating how things often end up really working:
> 
> The Machine that Won the War (Asimov, Short Story) - How human's really often deal with complex decisions (even when there is analytics available).
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_That_Won_the_War_%28short_story%29
> (Text: http://www.olivenri.com/machine_won_files/The_Machine_that_Won_the_War01.pdf)
> 
> and
> 
> Computers Don't Argue (Gordon R. Dickson, Short Story) - The nature of failure in complex systems (i.e. the real causes and consequences of data quality problem)
> http://www.atariarchives.org/bcc2/showpage.php?page=133
> 
> These are a bit more mundane than some of the other recommendations.  But I I found them really good discussion starters for getting students to think concretely about data management issues (sans tech hype).
> 
> Brian Butler
> UMD iSchool
> 
>> On Sep 3, 2014, at 1:30 AM, Alex Leavitt wrote:
>> 
>> Not a book, but definitely fiction: highly, highly, highly recommend the
>> Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 52-episode Japanese animation TV
>> series, which explores a team of government military hackers in a
>> post-cyborg age. From 2006, it explored big issues like Anonymous and the
>> NSA before those things blew up. Also, I think it has THE BEST exploration
>> of contemporary -- and future -- internet issues of any recent media, like
>> digital city infrastructure hacking and spontaneously-developing robot AI.
>> 
>> ---
>> 
>> Alexander Leavitt
>> PhD Candidate
>> USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
>> http://alexleavitt.com
>> Twitter: @alexleavitt
>>> On Sep 2, 2014 10:21 PM, "Robert Ackland" <robert.ackland at anu.edu.au> wrote:
>>> 
>>> My favourite example of data mining in marketing is in "Permutation City"
>>> by Greg Egan, Orion/Millennium: London, 1994.
>>> 
>>> The protagonist receives spam video calls from avatars representing family
>>> members and friends, who try to sell her products.  One day her spam
>>> detector lets a spam call through (the avatar is of her mother, I think)
>>> and it is so accurate that she gets tricked and keeps watching until it
>>> starts making the sales pitch.  She curses herself, because she realises
>>> that the marketing company will use her response to improve its algorithms,
>>> thus making it harder for her own spam detection system to block future
>>> spam calls.
>>> 
>>> Rob Ackland
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 03/09/14 05:46, max gindt wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Good evening,
>>>> since some of you asked for my reading list, here it is.
>>>> 
>>>> - Jaron Lanier, Who owns the future?
>>>> - Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding edge
>>>> - Evgeny Morozov, To save everything, click here
>>>> - Dave Eggers, The Circle
>>>> - Luke Dormehl, The Formula
>>>> - Big Data - Das neue Versprechen der Allwissenheit (collected essays)
>>>> - Mercedes Bunz, Die stille Revolution
>>>> - Daniel Miller, Das wilde Netzwerk: Ein ethnologischer Blick auf Facebook
>>>> - Alain Desrosières, Prouver et gouverner
>>>> - Shintaro Miyazaki, Algorythimisiert - Eine Medienarchäologie digitaler
>>>> Signale und unerhörter Zeiteffekte
>>>> 
>>>> As you can see, there are some books which are very accessible and written
>>>> in a journalistic manner, especially Dormehl.  Eggers' book which is only
>>>> now getting popular in western europe is, I think, the near perfect
>>>> depiction of the very-near future, although with little literary merit.
>>>> Pynchons' has almost no place on the list but is still inspired by
>>>> 2000-style internet... Desrosières writes about the use of statistics in
>>>> government so not directly internet-related but still an interesting
>>>> subject for those interested in probabilistic governing, which as a
>>>> subject
>>>> of course extends to data-based profiling and grouping. Finally, Miyazaki,
>>>> with a historical approach details various technological developments and
>>>> social uses all tending toward the all-day use of algorithms in our
>>>> machines.
>>>> 
>>>> So, again, what are your suggestions (and thanks for those already given)?
>>>> 
>>>> Max
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 7:56 AM, Stine Gotved<gotved at itu.dk>  wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Yes, I agree on Morgan - also his "Black Man" is fantastic.
>>>>> Please, share the reading list!
>>>>> :)
>>>>> Stine
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 01/09/14 22.43, "Alejandro Tortolini"<alemtor at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> I think "Altered carbon", by Richard K. Morgan.
>>>>>> Best,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Alejandro Tortolini
>>>>>> Buenos Aires, Argentina
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 2014-09-01 17:37 GMT-03:00 max gindt<gindtmax at gmail.com>:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Dear Air-L-isti,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> some time ago I reviewed a few fiction- and non-fiction-books
>>>>>>> portraying
>>>>>>> technological change, data protection questions, big data-based
>>>>>>> marketing
>>>>>>> etc. Morozov, the latest Pynchon, Jaron Lanier, Mercedes Bunz, Dave
>>>>>>> Eggers'
>>>>>>> The Circle among other books, the aim being popular books illustrating
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> many near-future tech-related questions of our time.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> My question to the distinguished readers of this list being this: With
>>>>>>> which book would you personally continue the series? No matter what
>>>>>>> format
>>>>>>> or perspective (or degree of complexity).
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Thank you very much for any pointers and advice,
>>>>>>> Max Gindt
>>>>>>> Brussels
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>> 
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Alejandro Tortolini
>>>>>> http://dooid.me/aletor
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>> 
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