Algorithmism

 

A belief in algorithms.

If we had the ability to write our own algorithms, we'd realize it's essentially the same as making an ordinary choice. Why do we need automation and why do we feel the need to have previous choices repeated?

The internet had a lot to do with how making choices has evolved.

My usual film-watching routine pre-internet was to read the reviews on Friday and see films on the weekend and it seemed to be a good routine. You could trust critics to recommend films--you knew you'd like what they liked. Most of the films that Roger Ebert rated highly were films that I liked as well. But that's putting the trust in someone else that you admire, not trusting that an algorithm that's been watching what you're watching and using metadata to generate similarly useful results. Without critics, I would have never have been exposed to Malle, Kieslowski, Almodovar, Greenaway. Even if you could develop a neural net of film reviews and generate content through machine learning and have a AI-generated At the Movies it still won't work the same. 

The problem with machine-generated metadata is that it is often wrong because there's no one editing it to make sure it's accurate. I notice it very often in music metadata where the key is often wrong. That's because machines don't understand how tonal centers work in music and how a composer decides on a key signature. Machines can't replicate that. But in the end it doesn't matter because the use of the metadata is for finding samples to play together, not to create authoritative bibliographic data. Similarly in film reviews, its the purpose of the metadata and it must be serving someone, but it's not the viewer, as Roger Ebert might do to inform his readers.

When I kept journals in the late 90s I would write what I thought of films. In retrospect, I can see how we got to this point because of how the internet was reshaping thought and behavior: 2003: "Everything seems to be driven by data these days, such that making a change in the price in an Excel spreadsheet or database can affect the taste of coffee, the size of portions, and availability of items on a menu", 2004: "Media will be driven by background metadata, and 'choice' will be regulated by artificial intelligence and neural networks residing on the internet that will ultimately influence the 'choices' we make. It will appear that we are making choices by sheer volition, when in fact it will be driven by metadata.", 2005: "Can we still use the term “music industry?” It should be something like 'music informatics'".

The other interesting side-effect of algorithmism is that in the loyalty of our beliefs we are blinkered to other possibilities. Sometimes you'll see this on Google Search results where the ranked popularity of the word or phrase makes it impossible to find what you were looking for. The more concerning metaphor is how it affects our lives in general. All that is accessible is the tip of the iceberg and you wouldn't even know if there was anything below the surface. We assume there is but it's just a prop--a Styrofoam iceberg. There's nothing below except a sea of metadata often useless to you.

11/29/2021