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Hamid Reza Ekbia, born on 23 August 1955, is an Iran-born American university professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs known for his work on political economy of computing and the concept of heteromation.
Ekbia has published widely and is the author of such books as Heteromation, and Other Stories of Computing and Capitalism (2017) [1] and Artificial Dreams: The Quest for Non-Biological Intelligence (2008). [2]
Ekbia’s research is in the political economy of computing, the future of work and labor around the globe, and in how technologies mediate cultural, socio-economic, and geopolitical relations of modern societies. He believes that computing and capitalism have been developing in a lockstep fashion, which has led, among others, to the extraction of economic value from low-cost or free labor in computer-mediated networks.
Born on 23 August 1955 in Mashhad, the capital city of Khorasan - an ancient province of Iran and the birthplace of great poets Ferdowsi, Omar Khayyam, and Akhavan Sales.
He studied engineering at Abadan Institute of Technology in Iran and University of California, Los Angeles in the U.S., and, later, Computer Science and Cognitive Science in Indiana University, where he became a fargonaut at the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition. After teaching at Indiana University’s School of Informatics and the University of Redlands, he became professor of informatics, cognitive science, and international studies at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at the Indiana University Bloomington and director of the Center for Research on Mediated Interaction. In 2022 Ekbia became University Professor in Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and director of its Autonomous Systems Policy Institute (ASPI). [1]
Ekbia has introduced and is developing a new area of study, which he refers to as the “political economy of computing”. He approaches it as a dynamic relationship between computing and the capitalist economy. He envisions the study of the interactions between computing and the economy as a recursive process that would start at the macro scale of the social and historical (world-economies, nation-states, law, trade, infrastructures, crisis, etc.), move to the meso level of the institutional and organizational (firms, markets, platforms, innovation, jobs, automation, etc.) and finally zoom in on the micro level of the personal and psychological (affect, attention, labor, value, privacy, etc.).
Ekbia, together with Bonnie A. Nardi, introduced the term “heteromation” to grasp the practice of extraction of economic value from low-cost or free labor in computer-mediated networks. [2] Heteromation is the third stage in the process of division of labor between humans and machines, following automation and augmentation.
Ekbia studies artificial intelligence (AI) from a socio-philosophical perspective. According to him, a great deal of confusion has currently been created through the use of “AI” as an umbrella term for a set of related technologies that are sold to the public as snake oil. [3] The confusion, in turn, gives rise to policies and practices pursued by various social institutions (governments, businesses, media, judiciary bodies, funding agencies, etc.) the outcomes of which feed back into the underlying misconceptions about AI, generating even more confusion — a vicious cycle that seems to reproduce itself without end and without a driving vision on the horizon, let alone taking responsibility for it. The current fever about AI, which fuels these policies and practices, is symptomatic of a paradoxical situation where, on the one hand, technological innovations that, in the words of Edmund Husserl, “we can never cease to admire,” allow us to tackle a wide range of health, medical, and environmental problems in a novel fashion, while, on the other hand, feeling helpless in the face of mounting economic, cultural, political, and environmental crises that seem to be spiraling out of control. It is in this sense that the crisis of AI expresses these other crises. AI does not cause these crises, nor is it a simple side effect of them; rather, it is their vivid embodiment, capturing and manifesting their coupled dynamics, their regenerative character, and their imposing logic.
Ekbia studies global development and the North-South geo-politics, largely from a scientific and technological perspective. He argues that technology and development have a close connection with each other. In the Western imagination, technology is often tied to modernization, progress, and social good. In modern times, various technologies (from mechanical harvesters to baby bottles and from radio sets to social media) have been introduced to the developing world with a promise of progress. The outcomes, however, have been mixed at best, with such interventions often disrupting established ways of life, replacing them with alternatives that have a fallen-from-sky feel to them.
Submission declined on 28 August 2023 by
Dan arndt (
talk). This submission's references do not show that the subject
qualifies for a Wikipedia article—that is, they do not show significant coverage (not just passing mentions) about the subject in published,
reliable,
secondary sources that are
independent of the subject (see the
guidelines on the notability of people). Before any resubmission, additional references meeting these criteria should be added (see
technical help and learn about
mistakes to avoid when addressing this issue). If no additional references exist, the subject is not suitable for Wikipedia. The content of this submission includes material that does not meet Wikipedia's
minimum standard for inline citations. Please
cite your sources using
footnotes. For instructions on how to do this, please see
Referencing for beginners. Thank you.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
| ![]() |
Hamid Reza Ekbia, born on 23 August 1955, is an Iran-born American university professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs known for his work on political economy of computing and the concept of heteromation.
Ekbia has published widely and is the author of such books as Heteromation, and Other Stories of Computing and Capitalism (2017) [1] and Artificial Dreams: The Quest for Non-Biological Intelligence (2008). [2]
Ekbia’s research is in the political economy of computing, the future of work and labor around the globe, and in how technologies mediate cultural, socio-economic, and geopolitical relations of modern societies. He believes that computing and capitalism have been developing in a lockstep fashion, which has led, among others, to the extraction of economic value from low-cost or free labor in computer-mediated networks.
Born on 23 August 1955 in Mashhad, the capital city of Khorasan - an ancient province of Iran and the birthplace of great poets Ferdowsi, Omar Khayyam, and Akhavan Sales.
He studied engineering at Abadan Institute of Technology in Iran and University of California, Los Angeles in the U.S., and, later, Computer Science and Cognitive Science in Indiana University, where he became a fargonaut at the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition. After teaching at Indiana University’s School of Informatics and the University of Redlands, he became professor of informatics, cognitive science, and international studies at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at the Indiana University Bloomington and director of the Center for Research on Mediated Interaction. In 2022 Ekbia became University Professor in Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and director of its Autonomous Systems Policy Institute (ASPI). [1]
Ekbia has introduced and is developing a new area of study, which he refers to as the “political economy of computing”. He approaches it as a dynamic relationship between computing and the capitalist economy. He envisions the study of the interactions between computing and the economy as a recursive process that would start at the macro scale of the social and historical (world-economies, nation-states, law, trade, infrastructures, crisis, etc.), move to the meso level of the institutional and organizational (firms, markets, platforms, innovation, jobs, automation, etc.) and finally zoom in on the micro level of the personal and psychological (affect, attention, labor, value, privacy, etc.).
Ekbia, together with Bonnie A. Nardi, introduced the term “heteromation” to grasp the practice of extraction of economic value from low-cost or free labor in computer-mediated networks. [2] Heteromation is the third stage in the process of division of labor between humans and machines, following automation and augmentation.
Ekbia studies artificial intelligence (AI) from a socio-philosophical perspective. According to him, a great deal of confusion has currently been created through the use of “AI” as an umbrella term for a set of related technologies that are sold to the public as snake oil. [3] The confusion, in turn, gives rise to policies and practices pursued by various social institutions (governments, businesses, media, judiciary bodies, funding agencies, etc.) the outcomes of which feed back into the underlying misconceptions about AI, generating even more confusion — a vicious cycle that seems to reproduce itself without end and without a driving vision on the horizon, let alone taking responsibility for it. The current fever about AI, which fuels these policies and practices, is symptomatic of a paradoxical situation where, on the one hand, technological innovations that, in the words of Edmund Husserl, “we can never cease to admire,” allow us to tackle a wide range of health, medical, and environmental problems in a novel fashion, while, on the other hand, feeling helpless in the face of mounting economic, cultural, political, and environmental crises that seem to be spiraling out of control. It is in this sense that the crisis of AI expresses these other crises. AI does not cause these crises, nor is it a simple side effect of them; rather, it is their vivid embodiment, capturing and manifesting their coupled dynamics, their regenerative character, and their imposing logic.
Ekbia studies global development and the North-South geo-politics, largely from a scientific and technological perspective. He argues that technology and development have a close connection with each other. In the Western imagination, technology is often tied to modernization, progress, and social good. In modern times, various technologies (from mechanical harvesters to baby bottles and from radio sets to social media) have been introduced to the developing world with a promise of progress. The outcomes, however, have been mixed at best, with such interventions often disrupting established ways of life, replacing them with alternatives that have a fallen-from-sky feel to them.