Watching feeling : emotional data from cybernetics to social media

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
This dissertation tells the story of how emotion was made computable. It traces a series of exchanges between the psychological sciences and computer science from the mid-20th century to the present, ranging from debates around cybernetic models of emotion at post-war interdisciplinary conferences, through early applications of computing to mental health at state hospitals, to the development of empathic AI agents at the MIT media lab. The history uncovered here tracks the development and mainstreaming of emotional data, by which is meant the result of the combination of psychological models of emotion and methods for recording emotional experiences, and paradigms for automating and algorithmically analyzing those recordings. The reconfiguration of emotion into data subject to algorithmic observation and intervention has ushered in a new biopolitical regime, one where these data give rise to new forms of knowledge, power, and value. The deep history in this dissertation reveals that emotion was a technical object long before contemporary algorithms learned to recognize it. At the same time, it demonstrates that the pursuit of artificial intelligence was an emotional endeavor from the earliest days of computer science, a field often considered the epitome of technical rationality.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource
Extent 1 online resource.
Place California
Place [Stanford, California]
Publisher [Stanford University]
Copyright date 2022; ©2022
Publication date 2022; 2022
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Author Nagy, Jeffrey Scott
Degree supervisor Turner, Fred
Thesis advisor Turner, Fred
Thesis advisor Christin, Angèle
Thesis advisor Denson, Shane
Thesis advisor Li, Xiaochang
Degree committee member Christin, Angèle
Degree committee member Denson, Shane
Degree committee member Li, Xiaochang
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Communication

Subjects

Genre Theses
Genre Text

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Jeffrey Nagy.
Note Submitted to the Department of Communication.
Thesis Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022.
Location https://purl.stanford.edu/qc500bj9156

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2022 by Jeffrey Scott Nagy
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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