Vectoral Agents

As machine learning algorithms are delegated with more and more tasks, the capacities that were historically considered signs of human exceptionalism become increasingly less persuasive. Composing a song, making a managerial or moral decision, or providing emotional support can now be outsourced to an algorithmically-powered machine. These operations are based on large-scale statistical aggregations in which pattern recognition is being deployed to manage individuals as pure data points and vectorial movements. As these procedures distribute authority, profit and privilege in ways that often by-pass human subjectivity, they throw into crisis the established ways of comprehending the relation between technology, individuals, and power. This collected volume brings together authors who engage with the politics of (non) human agency that shape our present moment.