Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Algorithmic Identity

Your identity is what search engines say it is (cf. advice from senior academics to young academics: be careful what you post online. Also: M. Gregg's response)

This might not seem different than identity has ever been, i.e. reputation always has made identity extimate in just that way (an effect of the outside).

The difference with search engines is that they not only have cultural capital (analogous to a very reputable source ruining the reputation of someone with less cultural capital and therefore fewer means to fight back), they exist within a system that codes them as neutral, objective, informational, algorithmic.

No comments: