Reflection on 'DISCRIMINATING SYSTEMS’ and ‘New Ways of Seeing' (draft)

The main theme within the podcast and the essay is about the lack of knowledge of the regular users of digital technologies and network infrastructures. While the creators of these technologies on the other hand gain complete control of these systems which we very much depend on. Technology gets more and more simplified for the user by hiding all technical systems behind and in the meanwhile technology gets more and more advanced, all while hidden under a layer of easy to use experiences.

Mobile apps for instance are friendly looking designs right there to help you with your daily life, for free. But in life, nothing is free. By using these apps the users data gets collected, sold and used for different purposes, which in fact is all written down in the terms and conditions in small text with a big ‘agree’ button below it. It is very important to stay critical towards these new digital technologies and gain knowledge about what we are using, just like the quote from the New Ways of Seeing Podcast: “Those who can see, can understand”.

And by this small group (mostly existing of white males) having total control over these digital technologies comes with new problems too. Maybe the most concerning issue would be racial bias in artificial intelligence. Even the best facial recognition systems are misidentifying black faces at rates multiple times higher than white faces. These flawed systems are a direct result of a lack of ethnic diversity within the giant tech companies. Racial bias in technology is obviously not a new problem.

Back when color film was being used for camera’s, people could use a calibration card from Kodak to see the correct tone of color which was called a 'Shirley card’. This card pictured a portrait of white woman, mainly because film was fabricated white people. It took decades for film companies to finally create true color tone film and a release a new 'Shirley card' for people of color.