Introduction

(This is part two in a five-part series called Interconnected, detailing how technology is changing humanity.)

We tend to think of algorithms as something hidden and unknowable, at least to us. But of course they are not. Algorithms are tools, and humans are tool-users. And right now there are organizations and people using these tools to hack away at the social and political ties that bind us all together.

It's not something that just happened by accident. The technology made this kind of warfare possible, and as we have always done, we began to use new weapons on one another. What remains to be seen is if we can find peace at the end of the road...

GUEST: Renee DiResta, technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching and policy engagement for the study of abuse in current information technologies.

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