Nick Seaver

Anthropologist, Tufts University



What Should an Anthropology of Algorithms Do?When encountering algorithmic systems, anthropologists often revert to a defense of the human, pitted against digital technologies. This short essay in Cultural Anthropology argues against embracing the “analog slot,” suggesting instead that we problematize the presumed opposition between humans and algorithms by attending to the humans involved in making algorithmic systems work.
August 2018