title: From ideology to algorithm: the opaque politics of the internet

authors: Snake-Beings, Emit

abstract: The emergence of new technology has a recurring history of being understood in terms of emancipation, as if access to new functions provides the potential for liberating social organisation. Walter Benjamin has argued that new technologies of mechanical reproduction have the potential to liberate and politicise humans. This argument has been applied most recently by Marcus Breen in his book Uprising to the internet’s potential for liberating politicisation. However, questions remain about the emancipatory power of the internet. Is it really a tool of liberation or a space of control? Focusing on the underlying systemic structures of the internet, the stance taken in this paper is to dispute the possibilities of new media functioning as an emancipatory tool. Central to the approach taken in this paper, is a consideration of the role of the algorithm in controlling the flow of internet data. Algorithm is a mathematical term used to define the binary code that enables command operations in computer systems (Judit 157). In recent years the algorithm has been used to describe the technology behind the internet search engine. A search engine such as Google uses algorithmic processing to electronically decide the order and importance of search results. Similar algorithms are used to link search terms with product advertising. Algorithms work at the level of the network and produce difference. They order and control the way internet users gain access to information and knowledge. As such, they are not inherently liberating, but constitute a powerful tool of intellectual oppression which, I argue, replaces the ideological oppression of the older technologies. My hypothesis is that the public sphere – a space of centralising ideologies in which a general consensus can be formed, as proposed by Habermas -- becomes a network of differences when applied to the internet. Differences within the internet are broken down to the level of the individual and at such a micro-level that the macro, i.e. the political, has already disappeared. In the enhanced subjectivity of personal monitor space (Breen 110-111), ideology becomes subjective and individualised. In such a space, the unifying modality of ideology gives way to the differential processing of the algorithm which shapes social space as a controlled experiment, and which may be adapted to create different output results. I will argue that in its capacity to shape the social space of the individualised internet user, the algorithm has now become a more effective method of intellectual oppression than the ideology of the outdated mass media technologies.

text: From ideology to algorithm: the opaque politics of the internet The emergence of new technology has a recurring history of being understood in terms of emancipation, as if access to new functions provides the potential for liberating social organisation. Walter Benjamin has argued that new technologies of mechanical reproduction have the potential to liberate and politicise humans. This argument has been applied most recently by Marcus Breen in his book Uprising to the internet’s potential for liberating politicisation. However, questions remain about the emancipatory power of the internet. Is it really a tool of liberation or a space of control? Focusing on the underlying systemic structures of the internet, the stance taken in this paper is to dispute the possibilities of new media functioning as an emancipatory tool. Central to the approach taken in this paper, is a consideration of the role of the algorithm in controlling the flow of internet data. Algorithm is a mathematical term used to define the binary code that enables command operations in computer systems (Judit 157). In recent years the algorithm has been used to describe the technology behind the internet search engine. A search engine such as Google uses algorithmic processing to electronically decide the order and importance of search results. Similar algorithms are used to link search terms with product advertising. Algorithms work at the level of the network and produce difference. They order and control the way internet users gain access to information and knowledge. As such, they are not inherently liberating, but constitute a powerful tool of intellectual oppression which, I argue, replaces the ideological oppression of the older technologies. My hypothesis is that the public sphere – a space of centralising ideologies in which a general consensus can be formed, as proposed by Habermas -- becomes a network of differences when applied to the internet. Differences within the internet are broken down to the level of the individual and at such a micro-level that the macro, i.e. the political, has already disappeared. In the enhanced subjectivity of personal monitor space (Breen 110-111), ideology becomes subjective and individualised. In such a space, the unifying modality of ideology gives way to the differential processing of the algorithm which shapes social space as a controlled experiment, and which may be adapted to create different output results. I will argue that in its capacity to shape the social space of the individualised internet user, the algorithm has now become a more effective method of intellectual oppression than the ideology of the outdated mass media technologies.

year: 2013

title: The Effects of Altering Maintenance Diet on Food Preferences of Hens

authors: Schroeder, Laura Claire

subjects: hens

abstract: The preferences of six hens for wheat, puffed wheat and pellets were investigated using Variable Interval 60-s Variable Interval 60-s dependent concurrent schedules of reinforcement with a 2-s change-over delay and 2.5-s access to wheat on the left key or either puffed wheat or pellets on the right key. In different conditions, the hens were fed at least 15-g of each of these foods when used as their maintenance diet. The number of responses, time spent responding, and amount of food consumed were examined. Body weights were maintained at 80% ± 5% of the hens’ free-feeding body weights. The results showed that when wheat was paired with pellets, there were few changes in the hens’ preferences when the maintenance diet was altered, but when wheat was paired with puffed wheat, there were large changes in the hens’ preferences when the maintenance diet was altered, especially when wheat was used as the maintenance diet. Preferences in this study may have been affected by the quantity of maintenance diet food provided after experimental sessions, hens being outside their target weight range and unable to complete all experimental conditions, differing levels of deprivation and satiation, and the order of experimental conditions.

text: The Effects of Altering Maintenance Diet on Food Preferences of Hens The preferences of six hens for wheat, puffed wheat and pellets were investigated using Variable Interval 60-s Variable Interval 60-s dependent concurrent schedules of reinforcement with a 2-s change-over delay and 2.5-s access to wheat on the left key or either puffed wheat or pellets on the right key. In different conditions, the hens were fed at least 15-g of each of these foods when used as their maintenance diet. The number of responses, time spent responding, and amount of food consumed were examined. Body weights were maintained at 80% ± 5% of the hens’ free-feeding body weights. The results showed that when wheat was paired with pellets, there were few changes in the hens’ preferences when the maintenance diet was altered, but when wheat was paired with puffed wheat, there were large changes in the hens’ preferences when the maintenance diet was altered, especially when wheat was used as the maintenance diet. Preferences in this study may have been affected by the quantity of maintenance diet food provided after experimental sessions, hens being outside their target weight range and unable to complete all experimental conditions, differing levels of deprivation and satiation, and the order of experimental conditions.

year: 2013

title: Our Place in New Zealand Culture: How the Museum of New Zealand Constructs Biculturalism

authors: Goldsmith, Michael

subjects: museum

abstract: The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa opened in 1998 amidst controversy but has been a huge popular success and has become an icon of national identity. The controversy was confined to elite circles and stemmed from criticisms of the contrasting ways in which Maori and Pakeha (European) cultural items were displayed — the former in a reverential manner and the latter as a kind of 'amusement arcade' of supposedly incoherent, temporary and mocking exhibits. Through an analysis of these displays and of the representations surrounding them, this paper argues that the sacred/profane dichotomy promulgated by the Museum may be open to argument but is probably an inescapable feature of the official policy of biculturalism in a postcolonial setting.

text: Our Place in New Zealand Culture: How the Museum of New Zealand Constructs Biculturalism The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa opened in 1998 amidst controversy but has been a huge popular success and has become an icon of national identity. The controversy was confined to elite circles and stemmed from criticisms of the contrasting ways in which Maori and Pakeha (European) cultural items were displayed — the former in a reverential manner and the latter as a kind of 'amusement arcade' of supposedly incoherent, temporary and mocking exhibits. Through an analysis of these displays and of the representations surrounding them, this paper argues that the sacred/profane dichotomy promulgated by the Museum may be open to argument but is probably an inescapable feature of the official policy of biculturalism in a postcolonial setting.

year: 2003