Digressive Prospects

February 2016

Two books

Echo Chamber Definition

An echo chamber is a group situation where information, ideas and beliefs are

amplified or reinforced by transmission and repetition, while different or

competing views are censored, disallowed or otherwise under-represented.

Filter Bubble Definition

A filter bubble is a unique universe of information for each of us.

Characteristics:- You’re alone in it.- It is invisible.- You don’t choose to enter the bubble.

(The Filter Bubble, p. 9)

Examples

Echo chambers:Friends and Family

Echo chambers:Neighbourhoods and Nations

Echo chambers:Newspapers, TV, etc.

Filter Bubbles:Streaming, e-commerce websites

Filter Bubbles:Facebook feed

“Increasingly, we’ll rely on a mix of nonprofessional editors (our friends and colleagues) and software code to figure out what to watch, read, and see.”

(The Filter Bubble, p. 52)

Online Echo ChambersPros and Cons

In relation to our intelligence and creativity

PROS● More information available online, but only if you search for it.● More relevant information served in echo chambers, which can increase our knowledge.● More communication with like-minded people, which can encourage our creativity.

CONS● “If you like this, you’ll like that” can be a useful tool, but it’s not a source for creative ingenuity. By

definition, ingenuity comes from the juxtaposition of ideas that are far apart, and relevance comes from finding ideas that are similar. (The Filter Bubble, p. 93)

● “Producing novelty requires a lot of divergent, generative thinking” (The Filter Bubble, p. 103)● “The Web provides a convenient and compelling supplement to personal memory, but when we

start using the Web as a substitute for personal memory, bypassing the inner processes of consolidation, we risk emptying our minds of their riches.” (The Shallows, p. 192)

In relation to our identity

PROS● Communication with like-minded people can help us building our identity.● Echo chambers can help us gaining more confidence in our beliefs.

CONS● “To be the author of your life, professor Yochai Benkler argues, you have to be aware of a diverse

array of options and lifestyle” (The Filter Bubble, p. 16)● “You can get stuck in a static, ever-narrowing version of yourself - an endless you-loop.” (The Filter

Bubble, p. 16)● “Every intellectual technology embodies an intellectual ethic, a set of assumptions about how the

human mind works or should work.” (The shallows, p. 45)○ Your identity shapes your media -> but media also shape identity (The Filter Bubble, p. 112)○ Living in the present -> “How we behave is a balancing act between our future and present

selves.” (The Filter Bubble, p. 117)

In relation to machines and algorithms

PROS● Algorithms save us time searching for information.● Algorithms can be better at searching information than us.

CONS● “The algorithms that orchestrate our ads are starting to orchestrate our lives” (The Filter Bubble, p.

9)● Overfitting: algorithms can have a wrong, oversimplifying representation of our interests (The

Filter Bubble, p. 134)

In relation to public debate

PROS● Echo chambers encourage expression of opinions among like-minded people.

CONS● “The most serious political problem posed by filter bubbles is that they make it increasingly

difficult to have a public argument” (The Filter Bubble, p155)● “Personalization has given us something very different: a public sphere sorted and manipulated by

algorithms, fragmented by design, and hostile to dialogue” (The Filter Bubble, p164)

What can be done?

Some recommendations from Eli Pariser

- “By stretching your interests in new directions, you give the personalizing code more breadth to work with”. (The Filter Bubble, p. 223)

- “We ought to be able to get a better sense of who these sites think we are.” (The Filter Bubble, p. 231)

- “Companies to make filtering systems more transparent to the public, so that it’s possible to have a discussion about how they’re exercising their responsibilities in the first place.” (The Filter Bubble, p. 229)

- “Personalized ads should disclose to users how they’re personalized.” (The Filter Bubble, p. 232)

- Algorithms should be constantly testing their hypothesis (The Filter Bubble, p. 134)- “Design filtering systems to expose people to topics outside their normal experience.” (The Filter

Bubble, p235)

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