Digital Agency - 1 views
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John Salem on 12 Nov 12The article by Rob Blades analyzes the role and value of computers from the perspective of a historian, particularly in relation to the shifting notion of agency and history. Much like movements in the field of History pertaining to the reintegration of marginalized groups, such as women or the working class, Blades argues that computers should be seen as having some measure of agency in our handling of them in research. He points to the number of programs coming close to matching Humans in the Turing Test, a test for determining "humanness," and delivers a counter argument to the claim that computers "dumb down" the population in general, and in particular historians who rely on them.