Computation as Strange Material: Excursions into Critical Accidents
2021 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Waking up in a world where everyone carries a miniature supercomputer, interaction designers find themselves in their forerunners dreams. Faced with the reality of planetary-scale we have to confront the task of articulating approaches responsive this accidental ubiquity of computation. This thesis attempts such a formulation by defining computation as a strange material, a plasticity shaped equally by its technical properties and the mode of production by which is its continuously re-produced. The definition is applied through a methodology of excursions — participatory explorations into two seemingly disparate sites of computation, connected in they ways they manifest a labor of care. First, we visit the social infrastructures that constitute the Linux kernel, examining strangle entanglements of programming and care in the world's largest design process. This is followed by a tour into the thorny lands of artificial intelligence, situated in the smart replies of LinkedIn. Here, we investigate the fluctuating border between the artificial and the human with participants performing AI, formulating new Turing tests in the process. These excursions afford an understanding of computation as fundamentally re-produced through interaction, a strange kind of affective work the understanding of which is crucial if we ambition to disarm the critical accidents of our present future.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021. , p. 67
Keywords [en]
machine learning, artificial intelligence, ml, ai, interaction design, computation, strange material, LinkedIn, smart reply, artificial artificial intelligence, neo-rationalism, materialism, marxism, computers, iot, material, method, ubicomp, labor, labour, affective labour, affective labor, post-operaism, excursion, critical accident, strange loop, strange attractors, Linux, Linux kernel mailing list, Turing test, imitation game
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-43639OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-43639DiVA, id: diva2:1567653
Educational program
KS K3 Interaction Design (master)
Supervisors
Examiners
2021-07-142021-06-162021-07-14Bibliographically approved