This article from the BBC by Jane Wakefield reports on a “psychopathic” algorithm created at MIT “as part of an experiment to see what training AI on data from ‘the dark corners of the net’ would do to its world view.” The algorithm is trained to interpret abstract shapes. Trained on images of people dying, Norman (named after Norman Bates)…
coding
Responding to the Technophobes and the Technophiles
For our weekly meetings with Dr. Robertson, the DH fellows each find an interesting new post about digital humanities to share with the group. Over the course of the year, we’re supposed to track some sort of theme or trend. Last year, I focused on posts and projects that work to Indigenize and/or decolonize digital humanities. This year, I’ve followed…
DH Read: “Weaving, Coding & Storytelling”
In this interview of Francesca Rodriguez Sawaya by Jon Heggestad, Rodriguez Sawaya describes her work in coding and weaving and the relationships she sees between the two, specifically “how these technologies incorporate unique modes of storytelling, and the opportunities for empowerment that they might offer women.” As Rodriguez Sawaya explains, weaving is a physical representation of data; traditional handcrafting is a…
DH Read: “Where is the Humanity in the Computer Science Curriculum?”
This post by Maha Bali (selected as an Editors’ Choice piece for Digital Humanities Now) expresses something I’ve thought about before but have rarely seen discussed. At a time when some people are calling for everyone to learn to code, Bali asks the important question, “Why is all the focus on teaching lay people how to code, and not teaching computer…
