As a STEM major, I’m always looking for new ways to expand my knowledge and learn new things in the world of science. I believe STEM translates into many areas of our lives that we don’t even realize. The book “Weapons of Math Destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy” is an excellent read that gives insight into the world of math and algorithms.
What is this book about?
Cathy O’Neil is an American mathematician turned data scientist. O’Neil uses her book to explore how algorithms and Big Data contribute to the dangerous cycle of discrimination and inequality. Did you know that the decision of health care, loans, and college admissions is not left up to people but mathematical models? Very scary realization and I really enjoyed this read. Check out my favorites of 2018 post in which this book makes a small appearance!
Ways algorithm affects our lives
Just to be clear things up with yall. I would consider this book science fiction, but not really fiction. The book reads like a fiction novel even though everything here is true. I DO NOT read journal-like books that have graphs and all that because….I’m sorry I already read a lot of that for school and the last thing I want to read on my free time is a textbook. I wouldn’t do that to yall!
Now on to some surprising findings
Algorithm #1: Going to college.
Who has the right to decide which college is the best? When I was a senior in High School I was obsessed with the idea of getting into a fancy top-tier school. For me and almost every senior in the country, our reference was the U.S. News & World Reports. This magazine company is known for its annual college rankings. They gained major prominence for their idea of placing colleges on this scale of greatness. The scale they made up based on their own criteria. Criteria include Alumni donations, SAT/ACT scores, graduation rates, and student/teacher ratio.
Important factors such as involvement around campus, mental health, and overall happiness are not considered when ranking which college is the “best”. Yah you got into the “best”school in the country, but will that environment allow you to thrive. You cant tell from a ranking!
You would think “oh now colleges can strive to make their school excellent!” Well not exactly. Instead of colleges to focus on improving academics and overall campus health, they focus on the rankings. They focus on this mathematical model that deems them worthy of excellence. Colleges have been caught lying about SAT scores and submitting false reports just to move a little up in these rankings. All this added to making college harder to get in to and more expensive to afford!
Algorithm #2: Police Patrol
Where there is extreme poverty there is also extreme crime. In some of the most violent places in the world, there is various forms of destitution. In the early 80s to 90s crime rates were increasing rapidly. Especially in big cities such as New York, California, Chicago etc. City officials began investing in a predictive algorithm that would place cops in areas they believe crime could happen. The model was intended to capture serious crimes such as arson and homicide. However, crimes that were non-violent such as drug use and vagrancy was getting all the attention. This caused a loop in the mathematical model.
Meaning police are being placed in neighborhoods encompassed mostly by black and Hispanics; where poverty is common. Cops are going back to areas that petty crimes are more associated with instead of pinpointing more serious offenses. Sadly this leads a lot of cops to “stop and frisk” minority residents in those neighborhoods. Prisons are filling up with prisoners and no victims. Homicide and arson rates do not change. Killers are still running loose. Which sucks because that was the whole point of the model right??? To get rid of those committing violent crimes.
Algorithm #3: Job
Do you know those long-ass surveys jobs have you do whenever you want to apply? The ones that ask those really ambiguous questions so you just answer Neutral for everything. Yah it’s based on an algorithm to test your creativeness and ability to work in a team. If someone scores low on these surveys they already start off with a big disadvantage with any company that uses that same method of filling out applicants. So basically people are getting shunned from a job not based off of personality but proxies. For automatic resumé screening, a simple formatting error disqualifies you from ever getting a chance. Wow, this sucks because you could be a bomb hardworking employee but a simple document format can potentially inhibit you from getting a chance to prove yourself.
Make sure to check out her book to read more on how big data effects our democracy in ways such as loans, health care and more!
