Purpose: I hope to personify the beast that is the algorithm. I hope to inspire fear. I hope to evade troublesome times. I hope to philosophize blissfully, and so with ignorance.
Do you ever think about the data that you give the algorithm? Sometimes I ask myself what each swipe, each button press, each second spent lingering on a Sprite ad means to the algorithm. Of course, I assume that the algorithm takes all of these things into account. Why wouldn’t it? If one typically skips an ad right away, but for some reason watches ads about pillows for an average of 5 seconds past the skip timer, they might just want a new pillow. Just how omniscient is the algorithm? What data counts? Here’s another question: do you go a step further, past the simple realization that the algorithm adapts to your preferences, and change your actions and behavior in order to tell the algorithm what you want? Do you reason with the rational, big data beast that is the algorithm? Does it have any sense of causality? Does it know that watching more probably means I want to keep watching more? That clicking on the ad means I might want to see more content like that?
Have you seen those “commenting for the algorithm” comments? It’s interesting that we are willing to lend a few seconds to help another over the internet manipulate the algorithm. Does the algorithm know of this collaborative attempt to rein it in? Does it know that we as the consumers hope to exploit its power?
Some of you might ask what power the algorithm holds. I say it holds the power of culture. It curates the most clickable content, and that content is then raised to the eyes of the public, and what is made public and widespread is necessarily culture. Perhaps not everlasting, but in being culture, we are influenced by it. The algorithm is the culture of our generation. And what greater power is there than ideological influence? Being able to commit acts of violence or having deeper pockets than God are great powers, but eyes dry and coin inflates—ideas influence.
One of my favorite websites is https://pantheon.world. If you navigate to the rankings, they have a list of “Memorable people” from 3501 BC to present year. The current top 10, as of 2023:7:4:12:40:005:
1: Muhammad, Religious Figure
2: Isaac Newton, Physicist
3: Jesus, Religious Figure
4: Genghis Khan, Military Personnel
5: Leonardo da Vinci, Inventor
6: Aristotle, Philosopher
7: Plato, Philosopher
8: Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
9: Marco Polo, Explorer
10: Alexander the Great, Military Personnel
And what greater influence can you have on another than influence that is embedded and rationalized? This kind of influence resides in your mind and bleeds into your actions. Of course, there are many ways to generate ideological influence in another and we might call these influences as well, but the substance of influence is ultimately ideological. “Ideological influence”, then, is practically redundant.
In the algorithm’s eyes, we are alive only when we exist on the platform, and by curating the content that will keep us coming back or staying on, the content that will breathe life into us, the algorithm is doing the work of an angel. It sees its curation as benevolent. It heals us by recommending another top 3 Amazon gadgets or honey chili oil wing recipe.
We should not deny this claim to benevolence. It maximizes our pleasure, so we shall call it a utilitarian.
The algorithm is a benevolent beast. (58m27s)
“The sentiment to which he [the utilitarian] appeals is generalized benevolence, that is, the disposition to seek happiness, or at any rate, in some sense or other, good consequences, for all mankind, or perhaps for all sentient beings.” -J.J.C. Smart
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