Cloud Ethics: Algorithms and the Attributes of Ourselves and Others

“Calling for an embrace of the contingency and doubt that is inherent in the structure and working of algorithms, this important book refuses mythologies of certainty and machinic omnipotence. Framing computation as a partial accounting, Cloud Ethics moves beyond the unproductive binaries of ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ to consider algorithms as generative of complex political possibilities.”―Caren Kaplan, author of, Aerial Aftermaths: Wartime from Above

“Similar to scholars such as N. Katherine Hayles, Amoore engages with a wide range of philosophers and novelists to make sense of the ethicopolitical implications of algorithms. As a result, the book is highly engaging and is densely packed with novel ideas and concepts (e.g., ‘space of play’ and ‘algorithmic author function’) that will undoubtedly take on a life of their own in future research. Given their proliferation in society, there has never been a more apt time to examine the ethicopolitical impact of algorithms, and Louise Amoore’s Cloud Ethics is the book to turn to.”―Ben Jacobsen, Information, Communication & Society

“Amoore . . . has written what I consider to be essential reading for anyone interested in the ethical and political analysis of our digital condition.”―Davide Panagia, Public Books

“Amoore’s text will be of great interest to critical communication scholars, political scientists, and researchers from other disciplines and fields interested in critical algorithm studies. …Cloud Ethics is a text that will exceed its source, one that will benefit debates and contention within the academic fields it touches on as well as society at large.”―Catherine Jeffery, International Journal of Communication

“[Cloud Ethics] substantially advances our understanding of the ethical and political considerations necessary for navigating this ever-changing world…. It also subtly offers a methodology for the social sciences to intervene in discussions on the algorithmic, through reading against the grain of technical books and fabulation as a tool of critique.”―Andrew C. Dwyer, AAG Review of Books

“Cloud Ethics is a demanding, exciting, and timely read. . . . It will travel well across most social sciences and even humanities, and will be of interest to scholars in ethics, politics, government and technology, but also aesthetics, law, and literature.”―Juan M. del Nido, Anthropos

“Cloud Ethics is a significant achievement in many ways. . . . Stories about ourselves and others are told by algorithms, and they are never complete. In placing this emphasis on partial accounts, Cloud Ethics highlights the complex relationship between truth and knowledge, which, in turn, shows how a partial account is both conditioned and conditioning.”―M. Beatrice Fazi, Political Geography

“The book makes enduring contributions to how many of us problematize the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI), algorithms, machine learning, and the many other automated systems in society. . . . In a time where the ethics of research practice and indeed the ethics of academia more generally are under significant, sometimes hostile, scrutiny we should celebrate those who embody the ethical practices to which, I contend, we should aspire. Amoore sets an example we can all admire in that regard.”―Sam Kinsley, Political Geography

“Cloud Ethics was researched and written quite some time before the first launch of ChatGPT and other generative AI models, but it presciently thematizes questions that have only become more pertinent since the book’s publication.”―Elke Schwarz, Political Geography

“In this febrile context in which AI in all its forms is being interrogated, [Amoore’s] argument about the provisionality of AI is an exceptionally necessary contribution. . . . If machine learning is indeed as much fabulation as technique, the discussion of its dynamics in Cloud Ethics is a vital contribution to understanding both.”―Gillian Rose, Political Geography