How Data Happened
A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms
$27.16
- Paperback
384 pages
- Release Date
22 April 2024
Summary
From facial recognition—capable of checking people into flights or identifying undocumented residents—to automated decision systems that inform who gets loans and who receives bail, each of us moves through a world determined by data-empowered algorithms. But these technologies didn’t just appear: they are part of a history that goes back centuries, from the census enshrined in the US Constitution to the birth of eugenics in Victorian Britain to the development of Google search.
Expan…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781324074588 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1324074582 |
| Author: | Chris Wiggins, Matthew L. Jones |
| Publisher: | WW Norton & Co |
| Imprint: | WW Norton & Co |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 384 |
| Release Date: | 22 April 2024 |
| Weight: | 298g |
| Dimensions: | 23mm x 140mm x 211mm |
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Critics Review
“Sometimes the best way to understand the present and prepare for the future is to look to the past. This insight is at the core of How Data Happened, an ambitious and thoughtful work. Wiggins and Jones have worked together—as data scientist and historian—to write a book that will reshape how you will see the relationship between data and society.” – Matthew J. Salganik, Professor, Department of Sociology, Princeton University, and author of Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age
“In a tour-de-force, Wiggins and Jones put data in context so that we can see the values, politics, and controversies that shape our present reality. This book is truly a semester-long class bottled into a narrative fit for vacation.” – Danah Boyd, founder and president, Data & Society Research Institute
“A leading data scientist and a historian of science walk into a classroom resulting in this ambitious and bold book packed with stories about the role of data in our society. Wiggins and Jones plainly and forcefully trace why we ended up with the big data” – Gina Neff, Executive Director, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge
“This is the first comprehensive look at the history of data and how power has played a critical role in shaping the history. It’s a must read for any data scientist about how we got here and what we need to do to ensure that data works for everyone.” – DJ Patil, former U.S. Chief Data Scientist
Chris Wiggins
Chris Wiggins is an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University and the New York Times’s chief data scientist. He lives in New York City.
Matthew L. Jones is a professor of history at Princeton University and has been a Guggenheim Fellow. He lives outside Princeton, New Jersey.
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