Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Outnumbered: Exploring the Algorithims That Control Our Lives
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.david-sumpter.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Sweden
NATIONALITY: English
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2010001480
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2010001480
HEADING: Sumpter, David J. T., 1973-
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010 __ |a n 2010001480
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca08355288
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |d CaBVa
046 __ |f 1973 |2 edtf
100 1_ |a Sumpter, David J. T., |d 1973-
373 __ |a Uppsala universitet |2 naf
374 __ |a College teachers |a Mathematicians |2 lcsh
670 __ |a Collective animal behavior, c2010: |b ECIP t.p. (David J.T. Sumpter) data sheet (b. 2/6/1973)
670 __ |a Outnumbered, 2018: |b title page (David Sumpter) back flap (David Sumpter is a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Originally from London, but growing in up in Scotland, he completed his doctorate in Mathematics at Manchester, and held a Royal Society Fellowship at Oxford.)
953 __ |a xh05
PERSONAL
Born 1973, in London, England.
EDUCATION:Manchester, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. University of Uppsala, Sweden, professor of applied mathematics. Worked formerly as a Royal Society fellow at Oxford.
AWARDS:IMA’s Catherine Richards prize recipient for communicating mathematics to a wider audience.
WRITINGS
Contributor to numerous periodicals, including Economist, Telegraph, Current Biology, Mathematics Today, and FourFourTwo magazine.
SIDELIGHTS
David Sumpter is a writer and professor of applied mathematics at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Sumpter is originally from London, but spent his childhood in Scotland. He received his doctorate in mathematics at Manchester and held a Royal Society Fellowship at Oxford. He was awarded the IMA’s Catherine Richards prize for his work communicating mathematics to a wider audience.
Sumpter’s areas of research are broad and diverse. He has studied the nature of fish schools and ant colonies, artificial intelligence, the systems of passing in football teams, and segregation in society. Outnumbered: Exploring the Algorithims That Control Our Lives is his first book. In it, he explains what algorithms are, how they work, and whether or not we ought to fear their capabilities.
Sumpter describes how algorithms, utilized by social media, search engines, and merchants, can determine our tastes, personality, and politics based on our online search history, purchase history, and likes. Unlike friends, real or virtual, who may forgive or forget a comment or like, these sites store all of this information indefinitely, developing a rational, reliable view of our interests and emotional states.
While many look to the political campaigns of Trump and Brexit as proof that these algorithms can manipulate us, Sumpter takes a different perspective. He explains the math behind polling, revealing that polls cannot predict outcomes, they can merely calculate the odds of events. Further, he suggests that it is the diehard believers that will put their faith in fake news, but the majority of readers will not be influenced.
Additionally, Sumpter points to the algorithm designers’ inherent biases as a fault of the technology. Data collection accuracy cannot be truly impartial unless a developer is able to entirely remove his or her own opinions and beliefs from the product. In Sumpter’s opinion, the truly worrying aspect of algorithm technology is the way in which advertisers direct consumers. He explains that our brains have a limited capacity for what they can process. After a certain point, we just ignore information. With advertisers feeding us information, products, and news that fit our interests, we become limited in our ability to think for ourselves or grow and change.
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews called the book a “deliciously insightful, mildly skeptical analysis of internet data manipulation.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly described it as a “clear account of how algorithms work,” adding, “Sumpter provides comfort to those who fear them as an insidious form of mind control, concluding that the real work is to address human biases.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2018, review of Outnumbered: Exploring the Algorithims That Control Our Lives.
Publishers Weekly, April 30, 2018, review of Outnumbered, p. 54.
Bio
David Sumpter is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Originally from London, but growing up in Scotland, he completed his doctorate in Mathematics at Manchester, and held a Royal Society Fellowship at Oxford before heading to Sweden. His scientific research covers everything from the inner workings of fish schools and ant colonies, the analysis the passing networks of football teams, segregation in society to machine learning and artificial intelligence. He has written for, amongst others, The Economist, The Telegraph, Current Biology, Nordic Bet Blog, The Conversation, Mathematics Today and FourFourTwo magazine. He was awarded the IMA’s Catherine Richards prize for communicating mathematics to a wider audience.
Print Marked Items
Sumpter, David: OUTNUMBERED
Kirkus Reviews.
(May 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Sumpter, David OUTNUMBERED Bloomsbury Sigma (Adult Nonfiction) $27.00 7, 17 ISBN: 978-1-4729-4741-3
Further frighteningly convincing research about the data infiltrating our lives.
Experts regularly warn us that today's digital technology can extract our innermost secrets. In this ingenious addition to the genre, Sumpter
(Applied Mathematics/Univ. of Uppsala, Sweden; Soccermatics: Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game, 2016, etc.) agrees that there is
some truth in this assessment but also serious limitations. The book, less a polemic than a combination of investigative journalism and (mostly)
painless mathematical lessons, explains how social media, search engines, and merchants extract our opinions and manipulate them with a set of
rules called an algorithm, which can often reveal our tastes, personality, and politics. Readers comfortable with ads tailored to previous purchases
may flinch to learn that every mouse click such as a "like" under a photo, joke, or film clip enters a massive digital archive that reveals an
unnervingly accurate portrait of the clicker. "Unlike our friends--who tend to forget the details and are forgiving in the conclusions they draw
about us--Facebook is systematically collecting, processing and analyzing our emotional state," writes the author. "It is rotating our personalities
in hundreds of dimensions, so it can find the most cold, rational direction to view us from." Persuading us to buy stuff seems benign, but the
internet also teems with fake news scientifically designed to influence our votes. Sumpter returns repeatedly to the surprise victories of Donald
Trump and Brexit. Wielding his mathematical tools, the author explains how algorithms deal with big data, and it turns out there is less there than
meets the eye. Polls only calculate the odds of an event; they can't "predict" anything. True believers lap up fake news, but it has a barely
detectable effect on changing the average reader's mind.
Americans readers should look past the Britishness of the text to find a deliciously insightful, mildly skeptical analysis of internet data
manipulation.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Sumpter, David: OUTNUMBERED." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A538293952/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9027964a. Accessed 19 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A538293952
Outnumbered: Exploring the Algorithims That Control
Our Lives
Publishers Weekly.
265.18 (Apr. 30, 2018): p54+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Outnumbered: Exploring the Algorithims That Control Our Lives
David Sumpter. Bloomsbury Sigma, $28
(288p) ISBN 978-1-4729-4741-3
At a time of widespread concern about technology exerting too much influence over people's lives, mathematics professor Sumpter
(Soccermatics) devotes this enlightening book to investigating these fears and explaining clearly what algorithms do. He tackles different
examples of their appearance in daily life, starting with in-the-news attempts to use the internet to study and influence voters. He discusses data
harvested from Facebook users regarding their preferences in politics and other areas (theoretically, Democrats "could focus on getting the vote
out among Harry Potter fans"), observing that, thankfully, the data's accuracy is limited by the algorithim designers' own inherent biases. As to
the fake news disseminated on Facebook and other content aggregators, Sumpter believes that, for most people, it has little real impact. A more
worrying phenomenon, he believes, is how advertising algorithms lead consumers. By reading, buying, or watching what is suggested to them,
readers miss out on things that don't fit into the math, since "when we are shown too much information, our brains decide that the best thing to do
is just ignore it." In his clear account of how algorithms work, Sumpter provides comfort to those who fear them as an insidious form of mind
control, concluding that the real work is to address human biases. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Outnumbered: Exploring the Algorithims That Control Our Lives." Publishers Weekly, 30 Apr. 2018, p. 54+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537852302/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e1df17fb. Accessed 19 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537852302