Table of Contents
Preface ix
Introduction xvii
Part I Decoding the Technologists
Chapter 1 The Imperfections of the Optimization Mindset 3
Should We Optimize Everything? 6
The Education of an Engineer 10
The Deficiency of Efficiency 15
What Is Measurable Is Not Always Meaningful 18
What Happens When Multiple Valuable Goals Collide? 19
Chapter 2 The Problematic Marriage of Hackers and Venture Capitalists 25
The Engineers Take the Reins 28
The Ecosystem of Venture Capitalists and Engineers 31
The Optimization Mindset Meets Corporate Growth 33
Hunting for Unicorns 37
The New Generation of Venture Capitalists 42
Technology Companies Turn Market Power into Political Power 45
Chapter 3 The Winner-Take-All Race Between Disruption and Democracy 51
Innovation Versus Regulation Is Nothing New 53
Government Is Complicit in the Absence of Regulation 59
The Fate of Plato's Philosopher Kings 63
What's Good for Companies May Not Be Good for a Healthy Society 68
Democracy as a Guardrail 73
Part II Disaggregating the Technologies
Chapter 4 Can Algorithmic Decision-Making Ever Be Fair? 79
Welcome to the Age of Machines That Learn 82
Designing Fair Algorithms 87
Algorithms on Trial 94
A New Era of Algorithmic Accountability 99
The Human Element in Algorithmic Decisions 101
How to Govern Algorithms 103
Opening the "Black Box" 107
Chapter 5 What's Your Privacy Worth? 111
The Wild West of Data Collection 115
A Digital Panopticon? 120
From the Panopticon to a Digital Blackout 127
Technology Alone Won't Save Us 129
We Can't Count on the Market, Either 133
A Privacy Paradox 137
Protecting Privacy for the Benefit of Society 140
Four Letters That Are Key to Your Privacy 142
Beyond GDPR 145
Chapter 6 Can Humans Flourish in a World of Smart Machines? 153
Beware the Bogeyman 156
What Is So Smart About Smart Machines? 160
Is Automation Good for the Human Race? 165
Plugging into the Experience Machine 167
The Great Escape from Human Poverty 170
That Is Freedom Worth to You? 172
The Costs of Adjustment 174
Should Anything Be Beyond the Reach of Automation? 177
Where Do Humans Fit In? 178
What Can We Offer Those Who Are Left Behind? 182
Chapter 7 Will Free Speech Survive the Internet? 187
The Superabundance of Speech and Its Consequences 191
When Free Speech Collides with Democracy and Dignity 198
What Are the Offline Harms of Online Speech? 202
Can AI Moderate Content? 209
A Supreme Court for Facebook? 213
Moving Beyond Self-Regulation 216
The Future of Platform Immunity 221
Creating Space for Competition 227
Part III Recoding the Future
Chapter 8 Can Democracies Rise to the Challenge? 233
So What Can I Do? 237
It's Not Just You, It's Us 239
Rebooting the System 243
Technologists, Do No Harm 244
New Forms of Resistance to Corporate Power 252
Governing Technology Before It Governs Us 257
Acknowledgments 265
Notes 269
Index 305