Demystifying Algorithmic 'Dystopia', Understanding Artificial Intelligence: An Ethnomethodological Study of Elementary Practices of Reasoning with Alg

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Rooted in ethnomethodology and science fiction studies, this thesis seeks to demystify Artificial Intelligence (AI) (or algorithmic 'dystopia') by revealing mundane methods of practical reasoning with algorithms and code. The methods/craft we use at work/play with AI are often mystified by depictions of AI in the media as dystopic, less-than-human phenomena. This thesis introduces the reader to the "metamodern turn", estrangement with AI as a decaying novum, and how we build worlds; (e)utopias, dystopias and between. Through the works of Isaac Asimov, Alan Turing, Harlan Ellison, Ursula Le Guin and Kazuo Ishiguro, this thesis pairs the reading of science fiction texts with programming with Python including work/play with; text adventure games, videogame bots, virtual environments, worldbuilding as a group study and computer vision/emotion detection. The purpose is to demonstrate that there is no final theory for 'doing' work/play with AI, but rather the findings point to an expanding, evolving, yet decaying set of human methods for making sense (and 'oddkin') with machines. By addressing these studies/tutorials as a collection of methods, this thesis seeks to draw out the mundane, taken-for-granted troubles and repairs programmers perform. The significance of this study is that it provides a kaleidoscopic view of work/play with AI which embodies the disembodied human counterparts that often remain 'behind the scenes' when we talk about AI.