How long does it take to read The Black Box Society?
the secret algorithms that control money and information
Frank Pasquale
The Black Box Society by Frank Pasquale takes about 5 hours 42 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 42 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2015. 311 pages, about 85,525 words.
12 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 9 hours 30 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 42 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 34 minutes |
The page count is the median across 4 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal behavior - silently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and Internet use. The data compiled and portaits created are incredibly detailed, to the oint of being invasive. But who connects the dots about what firms are doing with this information? The Black Box Society argues that we all need to be able to do so - and to set limits on how big data affects our lives. Hidden algorithms can make (or ruin) reputations, decide the destiny of entrepreneurs, or even devastate an entire economy. Shrouded in secrecy and complexity, decisions at major Silicon Valley and Wall Street firms were long assumed to be neutral and technical. But leaks, whistleblowers, and legal disputes have shed new light on automated judgment. Self-serving and reckless behavior is surprisingly common, and easy to hide in code protected by legal and real secrecy. Even after billions of dollars of fines have been levied, underfunded regulators may have only scratched the surface of this troubling behavior. Frank Pasquale exposes how powerful interests abuse secrecy for profit and explains ways to rein them in. Demanding transparency is only the first step. An intelligible society would assure that key decisions of its most important firms are fair, nondiscriminatory, and open to criticism. Silicon Valley and Wall Street need to accept as much accountability as they impose on others.
Subjects: Power (social sciences), Elite (social sciences), Knowledge, theory of, Psychology, Theory of Knowledge, Observation (Psychology)
