Offers an original contribution to the field by focusing on epistemic tensions in socio-technical systems.Academics and postgraduate students working across media studies, sociology, STS, communication studies, politics.We are living in algorithmic times. From machine learning and artificial intelligence to blockchain or simpler newsfeed filtering, automated systems can transform the social world in ways that are just starting to be imagined. Redefining these emergent technologies as the new systems of knowing, pioneering scholar David Beer examines the acute tensions they create and how they are changing what is known and what is knowable. Drawing on cases ranging from the art market and the smart home, through to financial tech, AI patents and neural networks, he develops key concepts for understanding the framing, envisioning and implementation of algorithms. This book will be of interest to anyone who is concerned with the rise of algorithmic thinking and the way it permeates society.We are living in algorithmic times. Automated systems are transforming the social world in ways that are just starting to be imagined. In this pioneering book, David Beer redefines these emergent technologies as the new systems of knowing. He examines the acute tensions they create and how they are changing what is known and what is knowable.