The world around us is increasingly governed by these algorithms, some annoyingly dumb and some freakishly intelligent. Because these algorithms generally mimic decisions that used to be made directly by people we have a tendency to humanise the results and can easily be horrified by what we see. But some basic understanding of how these systems work can go a long way to alleviating this dissonance. You don’t need to be able to write the programmes, just understand their basic rules and how they can scale.
Douglass Rushkoff coined the term “Program or be Programmed” for a book the other year and while his thesis is a little on the paranoid side the basic essence is true. If you don’t understand how these machines work you have no power at all.
