Why algorithms are making us stupid
Yesterday I was talking with a co-worker. He started out LOVING a news site, but stopped. He said “It was just the same thing over and over.” That’s an algorithm. I think this is a truly bad idea for several reasons:
- It’s too easy to build your own news “silo”.
Hearing over and over only the things that you agree with makes us unaware of the realities as they affect others. - Sometimes those ‘other’ stupid guys have a point.
Some silos deliver false information, that gets repeated over and over: an echo with no end. As a person passionately concerned about building a new economy that uses all resources — including people — with more wisdom and care, I am interested in why others don’t agree with me. I often turns out NOT that they don’t agree, but that other concerns trump [opps!] their concerns about the environment, clean energy, efficient transportation and clean water. Understanding and empathizing with those concerns should inform all policy: inform not dictate.
If we understand the fears of people worried about how a changing world will make or break their kid’s futures, we understand that for some this is a low carbon economy, and for others it’s policies that protect jobs in the US, even at the expense of immigrant rights.
These concerns are not an impassible gulf, but a gulf that we can build a bridge across.
When we hear the bigotry first and the concerns second, we can fail to address the concerns that could create an ally that can work with us instead of at cross purposes.
There’s many examples:
- For some it’s preservation of the fossil fuel economy that built our nation, and for others it’s divestiture and policies to support a new energy economy.
- For some it’s thriving communities benefiting from natural gas extraction, for others it’s water endangered by fracking chemicals.
- For some it’s long term corporate policies that manage water, energy and transportation more efficiently, for others it’s corporations over focused on short-term profits at the expense of workers.
These are not easy problems with simple solutions, but important problems that need innovation and collaboration from all sides. Our choice for algorithms that keep us inside our own bubbles are not helping.
What I read lately is Reuters online and the AP wire. And what is truly great is that if I pick a story that I’m interested in, the wires just don’t care. They continue to feed the latest news. And that latest is just that — the latest. It isn’t the most read, the most controversial, the most liked by the staff. It’s just news. I read a lot of stories that I wouldn’t have found anywhere else. I find opinions that I wouldn’t have heard anywhere else. And I’m grateful.
