Philip Agre

Philip E. Agre is an AI researcher and humanities professor, formerly a faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known for his critiques of technology.[1] He was successively the publisher of The Network Observer (TNO) and The Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). TNO ran from January 1994 to July 1996. RRE, an influential mailing list he started in the mid-1990s, ran for around a decade. A mix of news, Internet policy and politics, RRE served as a model for many of today's political blogs and online newsletters.

Agre was reported missing on October 16, 2009. He was found on January 16, 2010, but never returned to public life.[1]

Biography

Agre grew up in Maryland and attended college early.[1] Agre and his collaborator David Chapman started their PhDs under the supervision of Michael Brady at the MIT AI Lab. Upon Brady's departure for Oxford, they switched to a then-recent arrival at the laboratory, Rodney Brooks. Brooks gave the two young scientists relatively free rein, but together the three were seen as early major researchers in Nouvelle AI, an approach to artificial intelligence emphasizing behavior as emerging in interaction with the environment rather than the entire codification of behavior. This is illustrated by Agre and Chapman's 1989 article, "What are plans for?"[2] This work is considered seminal to reactive planning, though neither researcher approved of the term.

Agre went on to receive his doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1989.[3] He went on to take up a position in the University of Chicago Department of Computer Science, later joining the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences (now the School of Informatics) at the University of Sussex and finally the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Surveillance and Capture"

Agre's essay "Surveillance and Capture" deals with privacy and surveillance issues made possible by our constantly evolving technological age. Influential works preceding this essay include George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Constituents of a Theory of the Media (1970), and Michel Foucault's works surrounding the concept of panopticism.[4] Foucault argues that a constant exercise of such surveillance is not necessary, since its mere possibility induces self-restrained action among the inmates.[4]

Criticism of conservatism

Agre has argued that conservatism is "the domination of society by an aristocracy.", that it "is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general." and that "It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world." He also argued that "most of the people who call themselves 'conservatives' have little notion of what conservatism even is."[5]

Disappearance

On October 16, 2009, Agre's sister filed a missing persons report for Agre.[6] She indicated that she had not seen him since the spring of 2008 and became concerned when she learned that he had abandoned his apartment and job sometime between December 2008 and May 2009.[6] Agre was found by the LA County Sheriff's Department on January 16, 2010, and was deemed in good health and self-sufficient.[7]

Publications

Books and chapters

Agre, Philip E. (2004). "Social Skills and the Progress of Citizenship". In Feenberg, Andrew; Barney, Darin (eds.). Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-2959-5.
—————— (2004). "Internet Research: For and Against". In Consalvo, Mia; Baym, Nancy; Hussinger, Jeremy; Jensen, Klaus Bruhn; Logie, John; Murero, Monica; Shade, Leslie Regan (eds.). Internet Research Annual: Selected Papers from the Association of Internet Researchers Conferences, 2000-2002. Vol. 1. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-6840-2.
—————— (2003). "Information and Institutional Change: The Case of Digital Libraries". In Bishop, Ann P.; Van House, Nancy A.; Buttenfield, Barbara P. (eds.). Digital Library Use: Social Practice in Design and Evaluation. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-02544-7.
—————— (2003). "Writing and Representation". In Mateas, Michael; Sengers, Phoebe (eds.). Narrative Intelligence. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-90-272-5171-8.
—————— (2002). "The Practical Logic of Computer Work". In Scheutz, Matthias (ed.). Computationalism: New Directions. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-19478-5.
—————— (1998). "Designing Genres for New Media: Social, Economic, and Political Contexts". In Jones, Steven G. (ed.). Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. pp. 69–100. doi:10.4135/9781452243689.n3. ISBN 978-0-7619-1462-4.
—————— (1997). Computation and Human Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-38603-6.
—————— (1997). "Living Math: Lave and Walkerdine on the Meaning of Everyday Arithmetic". In Kirshner, David; Whitson, James A. (eds.). Situated Cognition: Social, Semiotic, and Psychological Perspectives. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8058-2037-9.
.—————— (1997). "Introduction: Computing as a Social Practice". In Agre, Philip E.; Schuler, Douglas (eds.). Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: Critical Explorations of Computing as a Social Practice. Greenwich: Ablex Publishing. ISBN 978-1-56750-258-9.
—————— (1997). "Beyond the Mirror World: Privacy and the Representational Practices of Computing". In Agre, Philip E.; Rotenberg, Marc (eds.). Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01162-4.
—————— (1997). "Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI". In Bowker, Geoffrey C; Gasser, Les; Star, Susan Leigh; Turner, William (eds.). Bridging the Great Divide: Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8058-2403-2.
—————— (1996). "Introduction: Computational Theories of Interaction and Agency". In Agre, Philip E.; Rosenschein, Stanley J. (eds.). Computational Theories of Interaction and Agency. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-2625-1090-5.

Selected academic works

Agre, Philip E. (2003). "Hierarchy and History in Simon's "Architecture of Complexity"". Journal of the Learning Sciences. 12 (3): 413–426. doi:10.1207/S15327809JLS1203_4. S2CID 62539315 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
—————— (2003). "P2P and the Promise of Internet Equality". Communications of the ACM. 46 (2): 39–42. doi:10.1145/606272.606298. S2CID 16925038.
—————— (2002). "Real-Time Politics: The Internet and the Political Process". The Information Society. 18 (5): 311–331. doi:10.1080/01972240290075174. S2CID 2235715 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
—————— (2002). "Cyberspace As American Culture". Science as Culture. 11 (2): 171–189. doi:10.1080/09505430220137234. S2CID 143027344 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
—————— (2001). "Changing Places: Contexts of Awareness in Computing". Human-Computer Interaction. 16 (2–4): 177–192. doi:10.1207/S15327051HCI16234_04. S2CID 11659803 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
—————— (2001). "Supporting the Intellectual Life of a Democratic Society". Ethics and Information Technology. 3 (4): 289–298. doi:10.1023/A:1013837409419. S2CID 8271068 – via SpringerLink.
—————— (2000). "The Market Logic of Information". Knowledge, Technology & Policy. 13 (3): 67–77. doi:10.1007/s12130-000-1021-y. S2CID 154191015 – via SpringerLink.
—————— (2000). "Commodity and Community: Institutional Design for the Networked University". Planning for Higher Education. 29 (2): 5–14 – via Society for College and University Planning.
—————— (2000). "Infrastructure and Institutional Change in the Networked University". Information, Communication & Society. 3 (4): 494–507. doi:10.1080/13691180010002323. S2CID 144326682 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
—————— (1999). "The Distances of Education". Academe. 85 (5): 37–41. doi:10.2307/40251767. JSTOR 40251767 – via University of California, Los Angeles.
—————— (1999). "Information Technology in Higher Education: The "Global Academic Village" and Intellectual Standardization". On the Horizon. 7 (5): 8–11. ISSN 1074-8121 – via University of California, Los Angeles.
—————— (1999). "The Architecture of Identity: Embedding Privacy in Market Institutions". Information, Communication & Society. 2 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1080/136911899359736 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
——————; Horswill, Ian (1997). "Lifeworld analysis" (PDF). Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research. 6 (1): 111–145. arXiv:cs/9704101. Bibcode:1997cs........4101A. doi:10.1613/jair.342. S2CID 60348 – via Google Scholar.
—————— (1995). "Institutional Circuitry: Thinking About the Forms and Uses of Information". Information Technology and Libraries. 14 (4): 225–230 – via University of California, Los Angeles.
—————— (1995). Guzeldere, Guven; Franchi, Stefano (eds.). "Constructions of the Mind: Artificial Intelligence and the Humanities". Stanford Humanities Review. 4 (2): 1–19 – via University of California, Los Angeles.
—————— (1982). "The Assq Chip and Its Progeny". MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Working Papers (WP-225). MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory: 1–25. hdl:1721.1/41168 – via MIT Libraries. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

References

"He predicted the dark side of the Internet 30 years ago. Why did no one listen?". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
Agre, Phil; Chapman, David (1990). "What are plans for?". Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 6 (1–2): 17–34. doi:10.1016/S0921-8890(05)80026-0. hdl:1721.1/6487. S2CID 43169899 – via ScienceDirect.
Agre, Philip (1988). The dynamic structure of everyday life. dspace.mit.edu (Thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/14422. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
Montfort, Nick, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. "Surveillance and Capture: Two Models of Privacy." The New Media Reader. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2003. 737-760. Print.
Agre, Philip E. (August 2004). "What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?". pages.gseis.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
Pescovitz, David (November 24, 2009). "Missing: Phil Agre, internet scholar". Boing Boing. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
Carvin, Andy (January 30, 2010). "Missing Internet Pioneer Phil Agre Is Found Alive". NPR. Archived from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2013.

External links

former Home Page for Agre at UCLA

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[:0-1] "He predicted the dark side of the Internet 30 years ago. Why did no one listen?". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-08-12.

[2] Agre, Phil; Chapman, David (1990). "What are plans for?". Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 6 (1–2): 17–34. doi:10.1016/S0921-8890(05)80026-0. hdl:1721.1/6487. S2CID 43169899 – via ScienceDirect.

[3] Agre, Philip (1988). The dynamic structure of everyday life. dspace.mit.edu (Thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/14422. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved 2013-11-08.

[Montfort,_Nick_2003-4] Montfort, Nick, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. "Surveillance and Capture: Two Models of Privacy." The New Media Reader. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2003. 737-760. Print.

[5] Agre, Philip E. (August 2004). "What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?". pages.gseis.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-23.

[boingboing-6] Pescovitz, David (November 24, 2009). "Missing: Phil Agre, internet scholar". Boing Boing. Retrieved January 30, 2013.

[npr-7] Carvin, Andy (January 30, 2010). "Missing Internet Pioneer Phil Agre Is Found Alive". NPR. Archived from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved January 30, 2013.

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