the reason i was interested in cathy o’neil’s ‘weapons of math destruction’ is because i’d seen her in two netflix documentaries: ‘the social dilemma’ and ‘coded bias’. as i loved both, reading her book felt like the next logical step.
in it, she discusses the pervasiveness and high stakes of algorithms in daily life, in as much frightening detail as only someone with deep respect and awe for big tech can.
by the end of the book, you’re hard-pressed to find areas of life untouched by algorithms—beyond the obvious ones like social media. they’re in banks, insurance, health care, schools, the workplace, courthouses, prisons, and so on and on…
her message, however, isn’t just about technology—it’s about social justice.
about how one group always seems to benefit, while another almost always bears the consequences. and, unsurprisingly, the latter are the poor, the disenfranchised, the ones without education or means or anything.
reading her explanations of how these systems almost seamlessly mesh into one another—the injustice of it all, as well as my own helplessness—made me so livid at times that i had to close the book to calm down.
not sharing the same values is one thing. exploiting and profiting from people who can’t defend themselves, all while conveniently hiding in the shadows, is something else entirely.
this is why o’neil’s book is important.
educating ourselves is important.
because once people know what to look for, shining a light becomes easier—and hiding in the shadows a hell of a lot harder.
