Useful and detailed summary here Nigel – do try to stay within the 250-word limit for these, but yes, sometimes one needs to elaborate. It might be worth trying to extend some of these ideas in a separate post.

‘ To me this is clearly a linking theme and I see possibilities in exploring this in my final assignment for this course.’

Sounds good – so this would be oppositions between ‘pure’ humans and ‘distinct’ technologies? Or dystopia and utopic views of technology? I agree that these are a strong themes that work through the blocks. It would be important to see the different ways this dualism comes about in the cyber- community and algorithmic themes though.

I think you’re right to question some of the dystopia visions of algorithms, and I think we do need to trace the social systems they are embedded in. Some of your examples here are good in this respect: an algorithm that controls a prosthetic limb doesn’t make decisions that ‘plug in’ to the same social conditions as, say, a social media news feed. They are both ‘algorithms’, but the ‘algorithmic system’ involved is more complex?

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