03/23/2020
ALGORITHMS AND THE DEATH OF HUMAN THOUGHT
How many of us have experienced looking up an article, product, or topic online, only to see a series of ads show up every time we go on the computer directing us to a merchant selling those products? Ever wonder when your computer became psychic? Algorithms.
What are algorithms? When you are telling the computer what to do, you also get to choose how it's going to do it. That's where computer algorithms come in. The algorithm is the basic technique used to get the job done. https://computer.howstuffworks.com/what-is-a-computer-algorithm.htm
When does this become a problem? When your search engine records your search (cookies), that information is gathered and sold to merchants, who, in turn, pay search engines to place ads with their products. The search engine is paid coming and going, for a massive profit, and merchants are given an opportunity to focus their advertising on an attentive audience. How does this become a problem? It becomes a problem because in this world of instant gratification, we pass up on quality products and services from 5 star companies because it is easier to click what the computer has chosen for us, rather than personally researching and choosing the most worthy recipient of your money, who provides the best value and quality. A computer has already told you what to do, and, we blindly accept that. Programmers program algorithms based on who pays them to direct a program, not who has what you are searching for.
When does this become a problem? With the coronavirus outbreak, the job market is going to be glutted with job seekers. Your company went belly up, you are 53 years old, you have a ton of experience and a massive amount to offer. You don’t have a bachelor’s degree, just a track record of success for your business. Your ideas, dedication and hard work took them out of the red 30 years ago, and produced a continuous series of productive years, making your bosses look smarter and the shareholders overjoyed. Now, you are looking for another job. You have filled out 50 job applications, sent out 50 resumes along with that application, and have received no response. Do you know why? The job site you applied through has an algorithm to pick through the applications. That algorithm may ignore your application because it has an artificial cut off age and rejects applications with birth dates before a certain date. (A way that companies get past discrimination suits. “We didn’t reject them based on age, we never saw the application”) Perhaps the algorithm automatically rejects your application because of a lack of a degree. Can anyone reading this show me a statistic that a degree trumps a proven track record as a predictor of success? Thousands of companies are losing out on profitable, productive employees because a programmer doesn’t consider an applicant, he or she sets parameters for an algorithm to act. To your detriment, and, ultimately to the company’s detriment, the employee you need is anonymous to you. The dollars he or she can bring to your company are hidden, because an algorithm doesn’t think, it acts. An unwillingness to do the work to think about an applicant is abandoned to a machine that can’t think or understand nuance. Everyone loses.
This world proceeds in the most delusional way as a result of algorithms. A new mother looks for information on immunizations. She hits an anti-vaxxer site, and clicks on to another from a posted link and on and on. The search engine picks up the inquiry, and starts giving that young mother a barrage of sites full of misinformation that back up the anti-vaxxer movement. Young mom is so overwhelmed by the misinformation, she stops fact checking who wrote the article, the science it was based on, and whether the findings are accepted by the scientific community. Society as a whole is damaged, and the evidence is seen in the return of polio, rise in measles, mumps, and other diseases we thought were history. Doesn’t matter that the facts say the anti-vaxxer movement is misguided and dangerous. I read it on the internet, and I read a lot of stuff on the internet, so it must be true. Young mom doesn’t understand an algorithm has sent her on this snipe hunt, and young mom doesn’t understand the “facts” she is basing her opinion on are not facts, but thought directed by a machine that has no consequence for it’s actions. Who is harmed by this algorithmic barrage of misinformation? The last person young mom wants harmed.
Ok. Just saying. Stepping down off my soap box. We are losing our humanity. Maybe it’s time to start thinking for ourselves again, before we lose the ability.
When you use programming to tell a computer what to do, you also get to choose how it's going to do it. That's where computer algorithms come in. The algorithm is the basic technique used to get the job done.
