Autonomous Exchanges: Human-Machine Autonomy in the Automated Media Economy
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Film, Media & Theatre Dissertations School of Film, Media & Theatre Summer 6-22-2018 Autonomous Exchanges: Human-Machine Autonomy in the Automated Media Economy Christopher Cox [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/fmt_dissertations Recommended Citation Cox, Christopher, "Autonomous Exchanges: Human-Machine Autonomy in the Automated Media Economy." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2018. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/fmt_dissertations/5 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Film, Media & Theatre at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Film, Media & Theatre Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AUTONOMOUS EXCHANGES: HUMAN-MACHINE AUTONOMY IN THE AUTOMATED MEDIA ECONOMY by CHRISTOPHER M. Cox Under the Direction of Ethan Tussey ABSTRACT Contemporary discourses and representations of automation stress the impending “autonomy” of automated technologies. From pop culture depictions to corporate white papers, the notion of auton- omous technologies tends to enliven dystopic fears about the threat to human autonomy or utopian po- tentials to help humans experience unrealized forms of autonomy. This project offers a more nuanced perspective, rejecting contemporary notions of automation as inevitably vanquishing or enhancing hu- man autonomy. Through a discursive analysis of industrial “deep texts” that offer considerable insights into the material development of automated media technologies, I argue for contemporary automation to be understood as a field for the exchange of autonomy, a human-machine autonomy in which auton- omy is exchanged as cultural and economic value. Human-machine autonomy is a shared condition among humans and intelligent machines shaped by economic, legal, and political paradigms with a stake in the cultural uses of automated media technologies. By understanding human-machine autonomy, this project illuminates complications of autonomy emerging from interactions with automated media tech- nologies across a range of cultural contexts. INDEX WORDS: automation, autonomy, media, technology, industry, digital AUTONOMOUS EXCHANGES: HUMAN-MACHINE AUTONOMY IN THE AUTOMATED MEDIA ECONOMY by CHRISTOPHER M. COX A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of the Arts Georgia State University 2018 Copyright by Christopher Michael Cox 2018 AUTONOMOUS EXCHANGES: HUMAN-MACHINE AUTONOMY IN THE AUTOMATED MEDIA ECONOMY by CHRISTOPHER M. COX Committee Chair: Ethan Tussey Committee: Amelia Arsenault Greg Smith Langdon Winner Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of the Arts Georgia State University August 2018 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Dystopias of Autonomous Technologies in Contemporary Culture .............................. 2 1.2 Contemporary Technological Dystopia: The Autonomous Robot Overlord .................. 4 1.3 Contemporary Technological Dystopia: The Autonomous Job-Stealing Robot ............. 7 1.4 Downplaying Dystopia: Enterprise Opportunities in Automated Economies ............. 10 1.5 Downplaying Dystopia: A Fully-Automated Workers’ Utopia .................................... 12 1.6 Beyond Human and Machine Autonomy: Human-Machine Autonomy ..................... 14 1.7 Methodology: Discourse and Industrial Ideologies of Autonomy .............................. 17 1.8 A Brief History of Automation: 1946 – Present .......................................................... 20 1.9 Contemporary Automation ........................................................................................ 29 1.10 Chapter Summaries ................................................................................................ 33 2 TESLA’S AUTOPILOT ........................................................................................................... 43 2.1 Tesla’s Autopilot ........................................................................................................ 47 2.2 Autonomy, Control, and Freedom.............................................................................. 50 2.3 The Federal Automated Vehicles Policy (FAVP).......................................................... 51 2.4 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 51 2.5 Convergence Culture and Digital Media Theory ......................................................... 54 2.6 Convergence: Elon Musk and Full Autonomy ............................................................. 56 2.7 Musk’s Ideology of Autonomy ................................................................................... 61 2.8 FAVP Levels of Automation and Political Ideologies of Autonomy ............................. 64 v 2.9 Political Power and the Modulation/Modularity of Autonomy ................................. 68 2.10 Human Autonomy: The Quandary of Modulating Cultural Activities ..................... 75 2.11 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 79 3 IBM’S WATSON .................................................................................................................. 81 3.1 Automated Cognition ................................................................................................. 85 3.2 The New Collar Jobs Act: Politicizing Autonomy ........................................................ 87 3.3 The New Collar Jobs Act: Assessing Autonomy .......................................................... 89 3.4 Methodology: The Nodal Point of Policy Discourse ................................................... 89 3.5 Methodology: Mapping “New Collar” and the New Collar Jobs Act ........................... 94 3.6 Mapping New Collar .................................................................................................. 96 3.7 Mapping New Collar: Augmenting Autonomy............................................................ 99 3.8 Mapping New Collar: Augmented Human Autonomy and Posthuman Cognition .... 101 3.9 Mapping New Collar: Augmentation and Re-Centering Human Autonomy ............. 105 3.10 Mapping New Collar: Augmented Autonomy and Cognitive Outcomes ............... 107 3.11 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act ......................................................................... 110 3.12 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act: IBM and the Cognitive Era ............................. 112 3.13 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act: IBM, P-Tech, and Vocational Training ............ 114 3.14 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act: IBM and New Collar Training Incentives ........ 117 3.15 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act: IBM and New Collar Employment .................. 119 3.16 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act: IBM and Cybersecurity ................................... 122 vi 3.17 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act: Downplaying Degrees and Labor Dichotomies ..... ............................................................................................................................. 123 3.18 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act: Reinventing Worker Collars ........................... 125 3.19 Mapping the New Collar Jobs Act: IBM Institutional Autonomy and New Collar Autonomy .......................................................................................................................... 127 3.20 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 129 4 AMAZON’S ALEXA ............................................................................................................ 131 4.1 What is Alexa? ......................................................................................................... 132 4.2 Alexa, Voice Assistants, and Gender ........................................................................ 133 4.3 Alexa and the Industrial Logics of Gender ................................................................ 134 4.4 Home Automation and Technological Distinctions .................................................. 137 4.5 Technology, Gender, and Domesticity ..................................................................... 139 4.6 Automation and Gender .......................................................................................... 141 4.7 Television Studies and Lynn Spigel: Towards a Methodological Approach .............. 144 4.8 Alexa: Marketing Autonomy in Home Automation .................................................. 147 4.9 Methodological Approach to Marketing Discourse .................................................. 149 4.10 CES: Someone’s in the Kitchen with Alexa ........................................................... 151 4.11 Alexa – The Soft Power of Software ..................................................................... 155 4.12 Alexa – The Autonomy of Self-Empowerment ..................................................... 157 4.13 Alexa – Autonomy and Home Productivity .......................................................... 162 4.14 Alexa – Autonomy and Immobility ......................................................................