Demystifying Algorithmic 'Dystopia', Understanding Artificial Intelligence: An Ethnomethodological Study of Elementary Practices of Reasoning with Algorithms and Code

Lough, Gemma (2024) Demystifying Algorithmic 'Dystopia', Understanding Artificial Intelligence: An Ethnomethodological Study of Elementary Practices of Reasoning with Algorithms and Code PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

Rooted in ethnomethodology and science fiction studies, this thesis seeks to demystify AI and algorithmic ‘dystopia’ by revealing our mundane methods of practical reasoning with algorithms and code. The methods/craft we use when at work and play with AI are often mystified by depictions of AI in the media as dystopic, less-than-human phenomena. Through the works of Isaac Asimov, Alan Turing, Harlan Ellison, Ursula Le Guin and Kazuo Ishiguro, this thesis pairs a reading of science fiction texts alongside accounts of learning to code with Python; including text adventure games, videogame bots, virtual environments, worldbuilding as a group study and computer vision/emotion detection among other projects. The research has demonstrated that there is no final theory for what constitutes AI, but rather points to an expanding, evolving, decaying, yet renewing set of human methods for making sense (and ‘oddkin’ or ‘odd kin’, as will be discussed) with machines. By addressing these studies/tutorials as a ‘catalog’ of methods, in Harold Garfinkel’s use of the term, this thesis seeks to draw out the varied, yet mundane, taken-for-granted troubles and repairs performed when at work/play with AI. The significance of this study is that it provides a kaleidoscopic, polymodal view of methods which are embodied by the human counterpart that often remains ‘behind the scenes’ in talk about AI, what it can do, and the future implications of working with such technologies. Ethnomethodology and science fiction studies share a philosophical underpinning which sheds light on AI by making strange the ordinary and by finding in the social the potential to build worlds. Through examining practical reasoning with algorithms through ethnomethodology and science fiction, using works by science fiction authors alongside Python coding projects, this thesis demystifies AI and algorithmic ‘dystopia’ by revealing the evolving human methods and ordinary interactions underlying AI and pointing, potentially, to different ways in which it might be practised as a result.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Science Fiction, Ethnomethodology
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2025 07:04
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2025 07:04
DOI:	10.17638/03192797
Supervisors:	Brooker, Phillip Mair, Michael
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3192797
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