BI-PARTISAN | MULTI-FAITH | STUDENT RUN
Fighting for a just, free, and sane digital world.
Privacy
At the IDH, we like to keep things simple (citation needed), so we approach everything through either ETHOS, PATHOS, LOGOS, or KAIROS. We’ll spare you the ancient languages lesson, but we’ll delve into each of these in due time.
WHAT IS ETHOS?
OKAY, BUT WHAT DOES ETHOS HAVE TO DO WITH ALGORITHMS/TECHNOLOGY VIOLATING OUR PRIVACY?
ETHOS refers to a subject's character, reputation, or core values. In its simplest form, ETHOS is credibility. If you want to be really pretentious about it, long-time IDH fan Aristotle called it “persuasion through character whenever the speech is spoken in such a way as to make the speaker worthy of credence.”
Dang,that’s a good question. Sounds like someone might have gone to college.
Everybody, whether conscious or not, has an ETHOS. For example, the person writing this website uses a snarky, slightly irreverent, PG-Ryan Reynolds while using (hopefully) sound rhetoric and sources tone to create a hip, us-against-the-man vibe while maintaining an air of intelligence. In much the same way, modern algorithms have an ETHOS of reliability and pure-logic, that whatever these algorithms put out is completely empty of bias and purely based on the facts.
So what if we told you that algorithms were lying about their personal brand? That they weren’t empty of bias and were actually, at their core, discriminating?
Do we have you hooked?. If you wanna know more, contact the IDH about getting their education materials (because if you do, we can pay our minimal staff and they can finally afford to eat something other than ramen).
Oh, what’s that? You want the evidence? We’re so glad you asked! What a responsible learner you are!
WE FORGIVE YOU
