Social machine

The idea of social machines has been around for a long time, discussed as early as 1846 by Captain William Allen, and also by authors such as Norman Mailer, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.

Social machines blur the lines between computational processes and input from humans.{{cite journal|last=Shadbolt|first=Nigel R.|author2=Daniel A. Smith |author3=Elena Simperl |author4=Max Van Kleek |author5=Yang Yang |author6=Wendy Hall |title=Towards a Classification Framework for Social Machines|journal=WWW 2013 Companion|date=2013|url=http://www2013.wwwconference.org/companion/p905.pdf|accessdate=25 May 2014}} They often take the form of collaborative online projects which produce web content, such as Wikipedia,{{cite journal|last=Berners-Lee|first=Tim|author2=J. Hendler |title=From the Semantic Web to social machines: A research challenge for AI on the World WideWeb|journal=Artificial Intelligence|volume=174|issue=2|pages=156–161|date=2009|doi=10.1016/j.artint.2009.11.010|url=http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs227/Readings/hendler-berners-lee-semantic-web.pdf|accessdate=25 May 2014|doi-access=free}} citizen science projects like Galaxy Zoo, and even social networking site such as Twitter have also been defined as social machines.{{cite book |doi=10.1109/COMPSAC.2011.12 |arxiv=1010.3045 |isbn=978-1-4577-0544-1|chapter=The Emerging Web of Social Machines |title=2011 IEEE 35th Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference |pages=26–27 |year=2011 |last1=Meira |first1=Silvio R. L. |last2=Buregio |first2=Vanilson A. A. |last3=Nascimento |first3=Leandro M. |last4=Figueiredo |first4=Elaine |last5=Neto |first5=Misael |last6=Encarnacao |first6=Bruno |last7=Garcia |first7=Vinicius Cardoso |s2cid=954471 }} However, a social machine does not necessarily produce outcomes which directly affect the individuals or machines involved and an alternative viewpoint states that Social Machines are "rather than being an intentionally engineered piece of software - the substrate of accumulated human cross-system information sharing activities".{{cite book|last=Luczak-Roesch|first=M.|author2=Tinati, R. |author3=O'Hara, K. |author4=Shadbolt, N. |title=Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference Companion on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing |chapter=Socio-technical Computation |date=2015 |pages=139–142|doi=10.1145/2685553.2698991|publisher=ACM|isbn=9781450329460|s2cid=22103905|url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/372857/1/luczakroesch_paper.pdf}}{{cite book|last=Luczak-Roesch|first=M.|author2=Tinati, R. |author3=Shadbolt, N. |title=WWW 2015 Companion: Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web |chapter=When Resources Collide: Towards a Theory of Coincidence in Information Spaces |pages=1137–1142|doi=10.1145/2740908.2743973|publisher=ACM|year=2015|isbn=9781450334730|s2cid=17495801|url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/374988/1/2014_SOCM_Flow__Formal__Camera_Ready.pdf}}

Nigel Shadbolt et al. say that the telos of the social machine is specific to its participants, whereas the telos of a platform is independent of its participants’ purposes; the platform is there to facilitate communication. A social machine may also spread across more than one platform, depending on how its participants interact, while a platform like Twitter could host many thousands of social machines.

An academic field investigating the idea has been active{{Cite journal|last1=Shadbolt|first1=N.|last2=Kleek|first2=M. Van|last3=Binns|first3=R.|date=2016-04-01|title=The rise of social machines: The development of a human/digital ecosystem|journal= IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine|volume=5|issue=2|pages=106–111|doi=10.1109/MCE.2016.2516179|s2cid=24896885|issn=2162-2248}} since Tim Berners-Lee's book Weaving the web. Social machines are characterised as 'social systems on the Web ... computational entities governed by both computational and social processes'.{{cite web|title=About|url=http://sociam.org/about|work=SOCIAM|accessdate=25 May 2014}} Tim Berners-Lee and James Hendler expressed some of the underlying scientific challenges with respect to AI research{{cite journal|last1=Hendler|first1=J.|last2=Berners-Lee|first2=T.|date=2010-02-10|title="From the Semantic Web to Social Machines"|journal=AI Journal|issue=174|volume=2|doi=10.1016/j.artint.2009.11.010|doi-access=free}} using semantic web technology as a point of departure.

Recent work focuses on the idea that certain social machines can be regarded as autonomous and goal-driven agents, and should be analysed and regulated as such.{{cite journal |last1=Cristianini |first1=Nello |last2=Scantamburlo |first2=Teresa|last3=Ladyman |first3=James |title=The social turn of artificial intelligence |journal=AI & Society |date=4 October 2021 |volume=38 |pages=89–96 |doi=10.1007/s00146-021-01289-8 |s2cid=244180663 |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00146-021-01289-8.pdf }} Nello Cristianini and Teresa Scantamburlo argued that the combination of a human society and an algorithmic regulation forms a social machine.{{cite journal |last1=Cristianini |first1=Nello |last2=Scantamburlo |first2=Teresa |title=On social machines for algorithmic regulation |journal=AI & Society |date=8 October 2019 |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=645–662 |doi=10.1007/s00146-019-00917-8 |arxiv=1904.13316 |bibcode=2019arXiv190413316C |s2cid=140233845 |language=en |issn=1435-5655}} Cristianini's book The Shortcut discusses extensively social machines as a model for many online platforms where participants automatically annotate content during usage, in this way contributing to the overall behaviour of the system.

• Augmented intelligence
• Crowdsourcing
• Government by algorithm
• Human-based computation
• Internet of things
• Social computing
• Social software
• Social technology
• Sociotechnical systems

{{reflist}}

• {{citation |title=The Theory and Practice of Social Machines |first1=Nigel |last1=Shadbolt |authorlink=Nigel Shadbolt |first2=Kieron |last2=O'Hara |authorlink2=Kieron O'Hara |first3=David |last3=De Roure |authorlink3=David De Roure |first4=Wendy |last4=Hall |authorlink4=Wendy Hall |publisher=Springer |isbn= 978-3-030-10888-5 |year=2019}}
• {{citation |title=Organized Activity and its Support by Computer |author=Anatol W. Holt |publisher=Springer |year=1997 |isbn=978-0792347088}}
• {{citation |title=Social Machines |author=Wade Roush |date=1 Aug 2005 |url=http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/404466/social-machines/page/1/ |journal=MIT Technology Review}}
• {{citation |title=Social Machines: How to Develop Connected Products That Change Customers' Lives |author=Peter Semmelhack |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2013 |isbn=978-1118637296}}
• {{citation |work=Intelligent Computer Mathematics |year=2013 |pages=98–119 |title=Mathematical Practice, Crowdsourcing, and Social Machines |author=Ursula Martin, Alison Pease |isbn=978-3-642-39319-8|bibcode=2013arXiv1305.0900M |arxiv=1305.0900 }}
• {{citation |title=The Social Machine: Designs for Living Online |first=Judith |last=Donath |authorlink=Judith Donath |publisher=MIT Press |year=2014 |isbn=9780262027014 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/socialmachinedes0000dona }}
• James Hendler and Alice Mulvehill (2016), Social Machines: The Coming Collision of Artificial Intelligence, Social Networking, and Humanity, Apress, {{ISBN|148421157X}}

• [http://sociam.org/ SOCIAM: The Theory and Practice of Social Machines] — slide show
• [http://users.ox.ac.uk/~oerc0033/preprints/ObservingSocialMachinesPart1.pdf Observing Social Machines Part 1: What to Observe] — pre-print

Category:Government by algorithm