Shortlisted for the 2018 Royal Society Investment Science Book Prize
A look inside the algorithms that are shaping our lives and the dilemmas
they bring with them.
If you were accused of a crime, who would you rather decide your
sentence - a mathematically consistent algorithm incapable of empathy or
a compassionate human judge prone to bias and error? What if you want to
buy a driverless car and must choose between one programmed to save as
many lives as possible and another that prioritizes the lives of its own
passengers? And would you agree to share your family's full medical
history if you were told that it would help researchers find a cure for
cancer?
These are just some of the dilemmas that we are beginning to face as we
approach the age of the algorithm, when it feels as if the machines
reign supreme. Already, these lines of code are telling us what to
watch, where to go, whom to date, and even whom to send to jail. But as
we rely on algorithms to automate big, important decisions - in crime,
justice, healthcare, transportation, and money - they raise questions
about what we want our world to look like. What matters most: Helping
doctors with diagnosis or preserving privacy? Protecting victims of
crime or preventing innocent people being falsely accused?
Hello World takes us on a tour through the good, the bad, and the
downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us on a daily basis.
Mathematician Hannah Fry reveals their inner workings, showing us how
algorithms are written and implemented, and demonstrates the ways in
which human bias can literally be written into the code. By weaving in
relatable, real world stories with accessible explanations of the
underlying mathematics that power algorithms, Hello World helps us to
determine their power, expose their limitations, and examine whether
they really are improvement on the human systems they replace.
