The Queer Algorithm

Abstract

This essay explores the intersection of queer theory and algorithmic design in the digital era. It emphasizes the potential of queering algorithms to render Artificial Intelligence more efficient at mapping more desirable possible futures. Drawing on multidisciplinary research, with an emphasis on social sciences and economics, I study to what extent the tools of Artificial Intelligence and data analysis currently incorporate in their design the diversity of cognitive and physical human experiences in space and time. I then argue that algorithmic practices rooted in deterministic, normative, or binary premises lack the robustness necessary for their joint purposes of modeling and predicting. I advocate for a systemic approach to reimagining and interacting with algorithms, highlighting the importance of maintaining long-term societal objectives, and of generating agency and autonomy in communities at the margin. This essay calls for a collaborative effort to redesign algorithms, making technology more reflective of and responsive to the complexities of human identity.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Control, Futurity, Prediction, Robustness, Utopia.

JEL Classification: B40, C53.