This is the repository for the online module Bots as Digital Infrapuncture, commissioned by the Utrecht University
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Title: Introduction: Harms in Computational Infrastructures Slug: 01-s2-introduction Date: 2020-11-01 12:00 Summary: How to correct, shift or expose harms in computational infrastructures?

What are computational infrastructures?

Who designs them? What values do they embed into digital systems?

The work of Seda Gürses provides us with handles to XXX [unpack, look closer into, study, explore] computational infrastructures. Throughout her work she has questioned the notion of "fair" technologies, how such "fair" practices are XXX [formulated, reasoned upon, shaped] and who is involved in reviewing the "fair" impact of digital systems. An important factor in her work is to approach computational infrastructures as systems that are far more than a technological ecosystems alone.

Seda is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Multi-Actor Systems at TU Delft at the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, and an affiliate at the COSIC Group at the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven. Beyond her academic work, she also collaborated with artistic initiatives including Constant vzw, Bootlab, De-center, ESC in Brussels, Graz and Berlin.

Three works that particulary connect to digital infrapunctures are her work on POTs (Protective Optimization Technologies)1, Programmable Infrastructures2 and The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest3. Links to these works are included at the bottom of this page.

This section contains five video contributions in which she will unpack how computational infrastructures operate and what impact that has on the digital systems that are being built on top of them.

We invited her to respond to the following questions:

  • 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?
  • What kind of limitations do you see in the realisation of these interventions?

Footnotes


  1. Bogdan Lulynych, Rebekah Overdorf, Carmela Troncoso, Seda Gürses "POTs: Protective Optimization Technologies" (2020). https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.02711.pdf ↩︎

  2. Seda Gürses, Roel Dobbe, Martha Poon "Seminar on Programmable Infrastructures" (2020). https://www.tudelft.nl/tbm/programmable-infrastructures/ ↩︎

  3. Miriyam Aouragh, Seda Gürses, Femke Snelting, Helen Pritchard "The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest" (accessed on 2020) http://titipi.org/ ↩︎