The Ordinal Society (Harvard University Press)
Friday, 10 May 2024

This book sets out the case that we now live in an “ordinal society.” Nearly every aspect of our lives is measured, ranked, and processed into discrete, standardized units of digital information. Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy argue that technologies of information management, fueled by the abundance of personal data and the infrastructure of the internet, transform how we relate to ourselves and to each other through the market, the public sphere, and the state.

<ASIN:0674971140 >

The personal data we give in exchange for convenient tools like Gmail and Instagram provides the raw material for predictions about everything from our purchasing power to our character. The Ordinal Society shows how these algorithmic predictions influence people’s life chances and generate new forms of capital and social expectation: nobody wants to ride with an unrated cab driver anymore or rent to a tenant without a risk score.

Author: Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Date: April 2024
Pages: 384
ISBN: 978-0674971141
Print: 0674971140
Kindle: B0CNM7KYSP
Audience: General
Level: Introductory
Category: General interest

 

For more Book Watch just click.

Book Watch is I Programmer's listing of new books and is compiled using publishers' publicity material. It is not to be read as a review where we provide an independent assessment. Some, but by no means all, of the books in Book Watch are eventually reviewed.

To have new titles included in Book Watch contact  BookWatch@i-programmer.info

Follow @bookwatchiprog on Twitter or subscribe to I Programmer's Books RSS feed for each day's new addition to Book Watch and for new reviews.

 

 

Banner


Reliable Source: Lessons from a Life in Software Engineering

Author: James Bonang
Date: January 2022
Pages: 608
Kindle: B09QCBVJ9V
Audience: General interest
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Kay Ewbank

This book combines a fun read with interesting insights into how to write reliable programs.



Machines Like Me

Author: Ian McEwan
Publisher: Vintage, 2019
Pages: 304
ISBN: 978-1529111255
Print: 1529111250
Kindle: B07HR6SGQ9
Audience: General
Rating: 4.5
Reviewer: Mike James
A novel about a synthetic human has become so much more relevant recently and guess what - it features Alan Turing.


More Reviews