Cloud Ethics: Algorithms and the Attributes of Ourselves and Others

We are delighted to introduce this forum on Louise Amoore’s Cloud Ethics: Algorithms and the Attributes of Ourselves and Others. The book presents an extensive critique and rethinking of our relation to the “algorithmic.” Along with excavating how algorithms are transforming the production of knowledge and practices of managing life (ranging from surgical robots and their neural network algorithms, to the U.S. National Security Agency’s SKYNET to detect anomalies for “kill lists” using random forest algorithms), the book also inquires after the wider effects that algorithms bear on ways of thinking and acting that are increasingly constitutive of contemporary political cultures. Amoore’s contribution substantially advances our understanding of the ethical and political considerations necessary for navigating this ever-changing world.