Customized Search and Information Delivery=Censorship

I recently came across an interesting TED Talk about “filter bubbles” while doing research on critical literacy in a digital age.

In it, Eli Pariser reveals the extent to which the combined use of algorithms and consumer/user-mined demographic information is leading (perhaps inadvertently) to significant degrees of censorship by omission, as individuals receive search results reflective not of information most relevant to what they are looking for, but filtered by companies like Google according to information as seemingly irrelevant to a topical search–say, about coverage of the uprisings in Egypt for example–as the kind of purchases a person makes, the make and model of the computer they use, their geographic location, etc.

Essentially, Pariser’s research suggests that the quest to deliver customized, highly targeted information to individuals is currently resulting in unanticipated dangers with regard to the Internet’s claim to provide equal access to information for all. What Pariser advocates is that users be informed, and put back in control, of the kinds of filters search engines like Google are using such that individuals—not algorithms and databases—determine what details are deemed relevant and made available.

This subject is particularly important if/when we consider the fact that Google search has become a first line go-to source for information and everyday research.

Moral Decision Making in Fallout3

Here’s an article by Marcus Schulzke that I found interesting but didn’t have room for in my presentation:

More than anything else, the Fallout series is unique in giving players an open world in which they can make genuine moral choices. Moral dilemmas are not presented for passive contemplation – they are an integral part of gameplay. As Sicart points out in his study of virtue ethics in games (Sicart 2009), virtue ethics is player-centric.

I like it because it highlights how one could use a more entertainment-oriented game as a teaching tool and because it helped me articulate what I think goes into role playing games that are fun to play, as opposed to ones that fall flat.