Todd Presner. Ethics of the Algorithm

In Ethics of the Algorithm: Digital Humanities and Holocaust Memory, Todd Presner seeks to respond to what he sees as a “big problem”: how to use computational methods “in ethical” ways to distant read vast Holocaust testimony archives (vii). While the book is rich in discussions of a range of current digital humanities methods and tools, its focus is very much on a core set of ethical concerns that persist regardless of the precise, ever-changing technologies deployed. Although working with a particular source—collections of oral history interviews with tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors—the central question in the book is one of wider significance for humanists: “How can we think, listen, compose, and interpret ethically with algorithms and computational methods?” (19) While Presner is the main author, the book includes the words of others from the UCLA lab. Collaborative and interdisciplinary ways of working are the norm in the digital humanities, and the book draws on this wider team to good effect, mixing Presner’s overarching narrative with shorter, focused sections that delve into particular projects coauthored with or by others. These multiple texts are further enhanced by QR codes that enable further exploration of the data under discussion. Both signal new ways of working and publishing that are to be welcomed more widely in the discipline.

Digital Archives · Digital humanities · The Holocaust · Chinese history and philosophy · Digital Humanities and Scholarship · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society