This ground-breaking and timely book explores how big data, artificial intelligence and algorithms are creating new types of agency, and the impact that this is having on our lives and the rule of law.

Contents: Preface xii 1. Introduction: Life and the law in the era of data-driven agency 1 Mireille Hildebrandt and Kieron O’Hara 2. Between the editors 16 Kieron O’Hara and Mireille Hildebrandt PART I 3. Data-driven agency and knowledge 45 Paul Dumouchel 4. The emergent limbic media system 60 Julie E. Cohen 5. Smart technologies and our sense of self: Going beyond epistemic counter-profiling 80 Sylvie Delacroix and Michael Veale 6. Rethinking transparency for the Internet of Things 100 m.c. schraefel, Richard Gomer, Enrico Gerding and Carsten Maple 7. From the digital to a post-digital era? 117 Charles Ess PART II 8. Do digital technologies put democracy in jeopardy? 135 Gerard de Vries 9. In defence of ‘Toma’: Algorithmic enhancement of a sense of justice 156 David Stevens 10. The conservative reaction to data-driven agency 175 Kieron O’Hara and Mark Garnett 11. Artificial intelligence, affordances and fundamental rights 194 Christoph B. Graber 12. Throttling machine learning 214 Paul Ohm 13. In the hall of masks: Contrasting modes of personification 230 Niels van Dijk RESPONSE 14. Life and the law in the era of machine agency 253 Mireille Hildebrandt Index 265

'The volume begins with a deep and insightful philosophical dialogue between the editors on AI, conservatism and legal protection, which sets the scene for the wide ranging but complementary chapters that follow. It confronts a set of questions about our data-driven present-future which are at once theoretical and practically urgent. Amongst the now-crowded literature on the political and legal implications of digital technologies, it is rare to encounter writing with such lyricism and verve, by turns whimsical and deadly serious. The chapters present a range of novel conceptual frames, from the algorithmic limbic system to a conservative defence against big data, each of which are bold and imaginative whilst being predicated on existing social and technological practices.' --Reuben Binns, University of Oxford, UK'In a time in which algorithms are pervading communication, culture and social life in increasingly effective ways, theoretical reflection often lags behind. Hildebrandt and O'Hara have succeeded in assembling and coordinating a brilliant collection of observations from different disciplines that, rather than being driven by technology, ambitiously show alternative perspectives. An illuminating read to help us understand and govern the challenges our society is facing.' --Elena Esposito, University of Bologna, Italy and University of Bielefeld, Germany'How should human agents preserve their humanity, their agency, and their valued institutions in their self-created data-driven environments? In this stimulating book - a follow-up to Smart Technologies and the End(s) of Law - readers will find more from Mireille Hildebrandt (in her own right and in conversation with her co-editor, Kieron O'Hara) and more from an impressive team of contributors (spanning law, philosophy, politics, media and computer science). Text is not yet dead; this is a must-read book.' --Roger Brownsword, King's College London and Bournemouth University, UK