Historian Edward Tenner argues for a new approach to building algorithms that allows greater information diversity and leaves room for just plain luck

Edward TennerThe optimism that greeted the dawn of the Digital Era in the early 1990s was not lost on journalist and historian Edward Tenner. He recognized and appreciated that access to information online – not to mention the time-saving advantages of word processing over laborious typing – allowed him to research and write more easily than ever. Yet something happened a decade ago that caused Ed Tenner to rethink his digital enthusiasm.

Since 2008 – as the smartphone and the Great Recession both took hold around the globe – the futurists’ dream of a “fiction-free” world has dimmed considerably. Handheld devices, mushrooming amounts of computing power, and algorithms able to digest data like digital whales have brought improvements in commerce and communication that are overshadowed by concerns about security, privacy, and the decline of civil society.

A distinguished scholar of the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and a visiting scholar in the Rutgers University Department of History, Edward Tenner first detailed the revenge effects of technological advancements in Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences; his TED Talk on “Unintended Consequences” has seen nearly 800,000 views.

The Efficiency Paradox by Edward TennerTenner’s latest book, out today from Alfred Knopf, is The Efficiency Paradox. In it, the author uncovers the costs to our culture and our personal freedom from the relentless drive for efficiency. A self-described skeptic but not an alarmist, he argues for a new approach to building algorithms that allows greater information diversity and leaves room for just plain luck.

“If people are too dependent on the efficient systems that they’re using, they’re not going to be able to respond efficiently when something goes wrong and they need to rely on what really should be reflexes,” Tenner tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“You can use big data to show what kind of people are most successful in a job – who are the best salespeople? In publishing, perhaps, who are the best acquisition editors? Based on your recent experience, you can have a team that is very, very effective at what they do,” he explains.

“However, reality is always changing, so it’s much better to have a staff of people with diverse backgrounds, with diverse ways of thinking. In the long run, it’s going to be protection against a disaster that comes when everybody on your staff is unprepared for a new environment.”

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