“Now we don't really know how the algorithm works, but Instagram,”
“You think the algorithm can't read?” “The algorithm does”
“The wall street journal.” I have a complaint
“and I wish I knew more. I still can't explain the algorithm.”
Do you remember Zoltar?
Zoltar is the fortune telling machine in Big, the 1988 film that used incredible mental
gymnastics to justify an affair between a grown woman and a 13 year old boy. And Zoltar
was a machine, but he was not just a machine. He was an all powerful machine. He was kind
of a God-like figure who could turn a 13 year old boy into Bosom Buddies-era Tom Hanks.
He had knowledge of the universe. And the reason I've got Zoltar here is because Zoltar
is the way that we talk about the algorithm. We don't act like it's a series of instructions.
We act like it's Zoltar. “Blame the algorithm. Do you believe that?”
Talking heads are obsessed with the algorithm, but they never actually say what it is. They
never go beyond the word, this word, it's a magic word. We act like we are being followed
by a formless God, an unblinking oracle, the numinous expressed through a computer science
101 syllabus. The algorithm is listening to you talk, the algorithm is shaping your revolutions,
the algorithm is making you buy shoes that are kind of weird pink, but they looked so
good in the ad. The algorithm is like Zoltar, it is beyond
our comprehension. It is beyond our control. They algorithms, good, uh, fellow citizens
and please your hearts not be concerned, not be troubled.
When you think of an algorithm, maybe you think of computer -ooking, text and green
blinking lines and people typing really quick on their keyboards. An algorithm is nothing
but a series of instructions. Open oatmeal; spoon, peanut butter powder;
add water; microwave for 92 seconds; mix; reflect on a routine so dull that it will
seem even more tragic after the hovercraft incident next Monday.
“Hovercraft incident? Remy’s hovercraft?” Repeat.
“What happens on the hovercraft?”
All the computer code, it's just a way to express instructions, like that. But we talk
about the algorithm as if its priorities came from somebody bigger than a person sitting
at a keyboard, ticking out objectives handed to them by somebody who has an MBA.
These are not decisions made by Zoltar. Even though an algorithm is the tool that makes
them. If Zoltar were real, people would fear it
, maybe they would ban it, and maybe they would worship it. That sounds a lot like how
we talk about the algorithm. Why doth I hate my fellow, man? Why do I hate
someone who has a different life, a different perspective than me.
I wonder the same thing forthwith. Why do I hate a ye, for you are different than me?
Why do we hate one another? Is it because of our human frailties, emotions? Our weaknesses?
I hate you, I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I want to kiss you. Uh, uh, I hate you.
I hate you. I hate you. That phrase, Deus ex machina, it refers to
a flimsy plot point that comes out of nowhere and resolves the situation without doing the
dramatic homework to make it really satisfying. But what it literally means is a God out of
the machine. It is I, the algorithm. I am the reason that
you hate one another don't you see? It was always me.
Are you a cow? Don't worry about that right now.
No. Seriously. Are you a cow? I am the algorithm. I am the reason for all
of your pain. The idea is that at the end of a Greek play,
a big crane, the machine, would lift an ancient God over the stage so they could fix the plot,
just resolve everything really quickly. We haven't made artificial intelligence yet.
We talk like we have made gods. All we've made is the machine. The word algorithm has
become a magic word. One that lets you ignore the real possibilities and perils— double
ps — of computerized technology working and shaping our world. What do I mean by that?
This is a politically neutral point. If you are in love with the algorithm, if
you think technology is awesome, then saying the algorithm blinds you to the real work
and creativity and specifics that make that technology work. And if you hate the algorithm,
if you hate the way that our society has become because of being shaped by computer aided
technology, then saying “the algorithm” keeps you from figuring out the policies that
will affect the change that you actually want to see.
The algorithm isn’t Zoltar and Zoltar isn't real, but what we do have, you can make a
wish with it or you can unplug it. But you have to understand it first.
Uh, thank you for watching this video. Normally I do personal videos, history type videos
on here, and yeah, if you could like and subscribe, it would be awesome. Cause it really helps
me out with the algorithm... I'm gonna go.