Summary: Previously we have become acquainted with a view on *digital infrastructures* that highlights their reparative and connective characteristics. In this track we will trace the term *computational infrastructures,* which forefronts how infrastructures are made from material elements and how they move said elements in the world.
Previously we have become acquainted with a view on *digital infrastructures* that highlights their reparative and connective characteristics. In this track we will trace the term *computational infrastructures,* which forefronts how infrastructures are made from material elements and how they move said elements in the world.
Seda Gürses' work on computational infrastructures which was developed in collaboration with Martha Poon and Roel Dobbe provides us with handles to study them.[^programmableinfrastructures]
Previously we have become acquainted with a view on *digital infrastructures* that highlights their reparative and connective characteristics. In this track we will trace the term *computational infrastructures*, which forefronts how infrastructures are material systems that move all sorts of elements in the world.
Computational infrastructures are complex entities shaped by different technological, social, economical and political dimensions. As is the case with any type of infrastructure, they come with embedded values. Their specificities and configurations shape the possibilities and restrictions of the whole system, defining what can be built on top of them and what not. The logics of computational infrastructures are shaped by global capital, material components, political values, and in turn shape labour relations, environmental ecosystems, as well as the political economies in which they operate.
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# Footnotes
To formulate a more precise understanding of what computational infrastructures are, how they operate and what forms of harm they produce, we will explore the work of Seda Gürses in this track.
[^programmableinfrastructures]: Seda Gürses, Roel Dobbe, Martha Poon "Seminar on Programmable Infrastructures" (2020) <https://www.tudelft.nl/tbm/programmable-infrastructures/>
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content/Track 2 - Harm in Computational Infrastructures/2-introduction-seda.md
Summary: *Computational infrastructures* and *POTs (Protective Optimization Technologies)*
Summary: Computational infrastructures and POTs (Protective Optimization Technologies)
Seda Gürses is an Associate Professor in the Department of Multi-Actor Systems at TU Delft at the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, a member of The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest and an affiliate at the COSIC Group at the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven. Beyond her academic work, she collaborated with artistic initiatives including Constant vzw, Bootlab, De-center, ESC in Brussels, Graz and Berlin. She is currently part of The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest[^ttp], a trans-practice gathering of activists, artists, engineers and theorists initiated by Myriam Aouragh, Helen Pritchard, Femke Snelting and herself.
Seda Gürses is an Associate Professor in the Department of Multi-Actor Systems at TU Delft at the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, a member of The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest and an affiliate at the COSIC Group at the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven. Beyond her academic work, she collaborated with artistic initiatives including Constant vzw, Bootlab, De-center, ESC in Brussels, Graz and Berlin. She is currently part of The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest[^titipi], a trans-practice gathering of activists, artists, engineers and theorists initiated by Myriam Aouragh, Helen Pritchard, Femke Snelting and herself.
Furthermore, in the paper *POTs (Protective Optimization Technologies)*[^pots] she co-wrote together with Bogdan Lulynych, Rebekah Overdorf and Carmela Troncoso, she proposes forms of critical *optimization* practices. Such practices "aim at addressing risks and harms that cannot be captured from the fairness perspective and cannot be addressed without a cooperative service provider"[add page number]. The paper questions current "fairness" approaches, by questioning their limitations and creating space for community-inclusive ways to review them. Following Michael A. Jackson’s theory of requirements engineering, it also proposes to approach computational infrastructures as being far more than a technological system alone, thus shifting focus from the system itself to the economical, political and social context in which it operates.
Seda Gürses' work on *programmable infrastructures*, developed in collaboration with Martha Poon and Roel Dobbe, provides us with handles to study computational infrastructures.[^programmableinfrastructures] Also her work on *protective optimization technologies*[^pots], which she co-wrote together with Bogdan Lulynych, Rebekah Overdorf and Carmela Troncoso, closely connects to the technological interventions that we are trying to imagine in this module.
By questioning how technologies could *optimize* their mode of operation in a truly just way, *POTs* provide "means for affected parties to address negative impacts of digital systems" [page number]. The work departs from a thorough consideration of multiple forms of *harm* caused by computational infrastructures framed as *externalities*[^externalities]. Examples of such externalities include lack of privacy, discrimination, low wages and surveillance. How a *POT* might engage with them is then illustrated through a range of activist, artistic and deployed examples of repurposed optimization technologies that "correct, shift or expose these harms".
Gürses (et al.) proposes forms of intervention-based optimization practices in the form of POTs: *protective optimization techniques*. The paper critically enquires current optimization approaches, the interests that feed their design and the way in which they displace their societal impact onto the shoulders of other parties and individuals. A POT is introduced as follows:
> POTs provide means for affected parties to address the negative impacts of systems in the environment, expanding avenues for political contestation. POTs intervene from outside the system, do not require service providers to cooperate, and can serve to correct, shift, or expose harms that systems impose on populations and their environments. (2020, 1)
The work departs from a thorough consideration of multiple forms of *harm* caused by computational infrastructures framed as *externalities*[^externalities]. Examples of such externalities include lack of privacy, discrimination, low wages and surveillance. How a *POT* might engage with them is then illustrated through a range of activist, artistic and deployed examples of repurposed optimization technologies. Following Michael A. Jackson’s theory of requirements engineering, it proposes to approach computational infrastructures as being far more than a technological system alone, thus shifting focus from the system itself to the economical, political and social context in which it operates.
We will introduce the work of Gürses and dive with her into the following questions:
* What are computational infrastructures?
* What are computational infrastructures?
* What are elements that shape (or are shaped by) computational infrastructures?
* How can we understand the harm caused by computational infrastructures and the systems which deploy them?
* What interventions are possible to mitigate or eliminate this harm?
@ -21,10 +25,10 @@ We will introduce the work of Gürses and dive with her into the following quest
# Footnotes
[^programmableinfrastructures]: Seda Gürses, Roel Dobbe, Martha Poon "Seminar on Programmable Infrastructures" (2020) <https://www.tudelft.nl/tbm/programmable-infrastructures/>
[^titipi]: Miriyam Aouragh, Seda Gürses, Femke Snelting, Helen Pritchard "The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest" (accessed on 2020) <http://titipi.org/>
[^externalities]: *Externalities* is one of the concepts and phrases in the paper that are borrowed from software and requirements engineering, and from economics and social sciences.
[^ttp]: The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest <http://titipi.org/>
