Toward the Elimination of Subjectivity: From Francis Bacon to AI

We are living in a world being remade in the image of numbers. Everywhere we turn we encounter techniques and technologies of quantification and ubiquitous talk of algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), metrics, audit, statistics, and more. They have become a part of the fabric of daily life and business, of economic and institutional routine. No domain or discipline is free of their influence or immune to their spreading deployment. The highly touted virtues of this remaking are familiar: increased efficiency and productivity, institutional accountability and responsiveness, health and safety, and ease and convenience. While these are compelling practical benefits, the turn to quantification, indeed its relentless imposition, cannot be explained in terms of merely functional or instrumental value. Deeper ethical and philosophical commitments are driving current ambitions. To bring these commitments into focus, I want to consider some historical context.