Voices in the Code - A Story About People, Their Values, and the Algorithm They Made

Explore the development of a life-and-death algorithm for kidney transplant allocation in this Stanford University seminar. Delve into David Robinson's account of how patients, surgeons, clinicians, data scientists, public officials, and advocates collaborated to create an inclusive and accountable system. Examine the challenges, compromises, and ethical considerations involved in building the Kidney Allocation System over a decade. Gain insights into the promise and limitations of participatory approaches, transparency, forecasting, and auditing in high-stakes software development. Learn valuable lessons for creating technology in a democratic and accountable manner, and understand the importance of public trust in resource allocation systems. Analyze the role of algorithms in shifting moral attention and the significance of shared understanding, deliberation, and knowledge participation in decision-making processes.

Introduction
Our Story Begins
The History of the Algorithm
Who Should Get Dialysis
Math Behind It
Medical Experts
Year of Life
Clive Raw
Clives methodological objection
Clives moral objection
Social determinants of health
What happened instead
A decade of debate
Kidney transplant system
Systems governed poorly
Public trust matters
Resource rationing
Lessons from this story
Algorithms shift our moral attention
Analogy
Shared Understanding
Deliberation
Quantification
Knowledge Participation
Questions
How to create more profitable systems
What is Technologic
Values and Ethics
Market for Kidneys
Discussion Questions