In the fast-moving, always changing society that we live in today, technology is ubiquitous. It allows us to connect with people across the globe with the touch of a finger and helps us diagnose diseases. And yet, technology is not without its inner demons — demons that we planted ourselves.
This is the subject of Hannah Fry’s book Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms published last year. It turns out that technology is not as impartial as many of us believe. In fact, technology can advance the biases of the programmers who coded them decades beforehand. For instance, the code that determines whether releasing someone on parole is “risky” spits out different results for two people with identical records but one is black and the other is white.
Another big question when it comes to technology is privacy. During the start of the tech boom, we willingly gave our information away in exchange for convenience. Now, are we going to pay the price?
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing services like 23andMe put our genetic information at our fingertips (it’s as easy as sending in a swab in the mail). Do we have a higher chance of developing cancer in the future? Who are our distant relatives? We can get these questions answered.
However, the fact that these companies have our genetic data is worrisome. In the future, when we know even more about the genome, having our DNA on file could mean that these companies can predict our health outcomes and trace our entire family lineages. What happens when these companies know your life story without ever even meeting you?
These topics fascinating, but they are also fraught with complexities that impact all of our lives. Are you okay with sitting around while algorithms treat people of racial minorities differently? Are you okay with giving away your private medical information in exchange for a diagnosis?
Hannah Fry delves into these complex issues and more in Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms (Amazon link).
Science On Tap 