Cathy O'Neil
Mathematician and writer
Weapons of Math Destruction is still the plainest account of scoring systems that punish the people least able to contest them.
Voices
Who to read in each topic
Not a ranking. People and groups whose public work helps you go deeper. Save a piece to review later, or open it in a new tab.
Who is harmed, who is excluded, and whose dignity is diminished in outputs and decisions.What is known about people, who knows it, and what that knowledge is used for.Shared facts, persuasion, elections, and the conversations a public needs.Fraud, cybercrime, and the weaponization of capable systems.What happens between a person and a system: overreliance, loneliness, lost judgement.Care, clinics, and the people who depend on systems they did not choose.Work, wages, skill, and the meaning of contributing.What is learned, what is lost, and who gets to know.Who can use these systems, who is shut out, and who captures the gains.Language, culture, meaning, and the texture of a shared life.
Daron Acemoglu
Economist ยท MIT
Power and Progress asks whether a technical gain becomes a shared one. A good first book for labour, inequality, and who captures the surplus.
Virginia Eubanks
Writer and teacher
Automating Inequality follows ranking systems in welfare, homelessness, and child protection. Read this before a civic group talks about 'efficiency.'