Designing unpredictable futures. An anthropological perspective on the algorithmical prediction of human behaviour

In this paper, we propose a cultural interpretation of the role of designers who work with data in Global North society, drawing on a comparative anthropological method. We trace connections between them and those who master technology in other societies, i.e. blacksmiths in West Africa, in order to interrogate the cultural meaning of the practice of pattern recognition. There are many concerns (mainly ethical and epistemic) and an increasingly lively debate around the growing role played by data-driven objects, infrastructures and systems in our daily life. The comparison that we propose draws on but also adds to this debate, emphasizing the socio-cultural risks and opening to reflections that may avoid these. It calls into question the emerging feature of aliveness of technology and the scientific and socio-cultural consequences that come with it.