Government by algorithm: Difference between revisions

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Between 1971 and 1973, the [[Chile]]an government carried out [[Project Cybersyn]] during the [[presidency of Salvador Allende]]. This project was aimed at constructing a distributed [[decision support system]] to improve the management of the national economy.<ref>{{ cite web| url=http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/11088.html| title=IU professor analyzes Chile's 'Project Cybersyn'| publisher=UI News Room| access-date=27 May 2013| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090910060602/http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/11088.html| archive-date=10 September 2009}}</ref><ref name=medina/> Elements of the project were used in 1972 to successfully overcome the traffic collapse caused by a [[Presidency of Salvador Allende#Crisis|CIA-sponsored strike of forty thousand truck drivers]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Medina |first1=Eden |title=Rethinking algorithmic regulation |journal=Kybernetes |date=1 January 2015 |volume=44 |issue=6/7 |pages=1005–1019 |doi=10.1108/K-02-2015-0052}}</ref>

Also in the 1960s and 1970s, [[Herbert A. Simon]] championed [[expert systems]] as tools for rationalization and evaluation of administrative behavior.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Freeman Engstrom |first1=David |last2=Ho |first2=Daniel E. |last3=Sharkey |first3=Catherine M. |last4=Cuéllar |first4=Mariano-Florentino |title=Government by Algorithm: Artificial Intelligence in Federal Administrative Agencies |url=https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ACUS-AI-Report.pdf |date=2020 |access-date=2020-03-26 |archive-date=2022-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815021400/https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ACUS-AI-Report.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The automation of rule-based processes was an ambition of tax agencies over many decades resulting in varying success.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Helen |last1=Margretts |author-link1=Helen_Margetts |title=Information technology in government : Britain and America |date=1999 |publisher=Routledge |___location=New York |isbn=9780203208038}}</ref> Early work from this period includes Thorne McCarty's influential TAXMAN project<ref name ="mccarty">McCarty, L. Thorne. ''Reflections on" Taxman: An Experiment in Artificial Intelligence and Legal Reasoning.'' Harvard Law Review (1977): 837-893837–893.</ref> in the US and Ronald Stamper's [[LEGOL]] project<ref name="stamper77">Stamper, Ronald K. ''The LEGOL 1 prototype system and language.'' The Computer Journal 20.2 (1977): 102-108.</ref> in the UK. In 1993, the computer scientist [[Paul Cockshott]] from the [[University of Glasgow]] and the economist Allin Cottrell from the [[Wake Forest University]] published the book ''[[Towards a New Socialism]]'', where they claim to demonstrate the possibility of a democratically [[planned economy]] built on modern computer technology.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cockshott |first1=W. Paul |title=Towards a new socialism |date=1993 |publisher=Spokesman |___location=Nottingham, England |isbn=978-0851245454}}</ref> The Honourable Justice [[Michael Kirby (judge)|Michael Kirby]] published a paper in 1998, where he expressed optimism that the then-available computer technologies such as [[legal expert system]] could evolve to computer systems, which will strongly affect the practice of courts.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kirby |first1=Michael |title=The Future of Courts - Do They Have One |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/jlinfos9&div=19&id=&page= |journal=Journal of Law and Information Science |access-date=12 April 2020 |pages=141 |date=1998|volume=9 }}</ref> In 2006, attorney [[Lawrence Lessig]], known for the slogan [[Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace|"Code is law"]], wrote:<blockquote>

"[T]he invisible hand of cyberspace is building an architecture that is quite the opposite of its architecture at its birth. This invisible hand, pushed by government and by commerce, is constructing an architecture that will perfect control and make highly efficient regulation possible"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=Lessig |author-link1=Lawrence_Lessig |title=Code |date=2006 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-03914-2 |edition=Version 2.0}}</ref>

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