Artificial Culture : New or Timeless?
Algorithmic Impact on our Cultures
We often think of culture as a sum of parts. Those parts being the people, actions, and outputs of some system. Information is woven in and out of the system at various points, and influences the people, actions, and outputs. Some delivery mechanisms of information have a disproportionate effect on the culture of the system.
Religion may be the oldest, and most obvious of these delivery mechanisms. Prior to the invention of the printing press, Catholic priests were the main vehicle for biblical texts to be shared via oral communication. Their messages, and interpretations were monitored and controlled by the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. For centuries the culture of entire countries revolved around the Church. Wars were fought. Populations were controlled, and the world went on. Then Gutenberg blew the system up.
Technology enabled the spread of ideas, and unfiltered interpretations of biblical text and beyond. A rediscovery of Greek philosophy occurred across Europe, and the renaissance flourished marking the beginning of the modern era. One could make the argument this explosion of freedom of thought made democracy and the end of serfdom inevitable. Now let’s fast forward.
Our technology is not entirely unlike the Catholic Church of old. The algorithms we interact with every day prevent and enable our access to information. Why do we see what we see on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram? An algorithm decided you were likely to enjoy it. There is no “chance” when you step into a digital environment like there is when you step into a library. Sure the books have been arranged and displayed, but the dewey decimal system means there is no bias to the arrangement of the stacks. I could just as easily discover Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, or C.S. Lewis. Whatever bias I brought with me to the New Economy are currently being reinforced by the underlying technological forces of Social Media.
“We think of algorithms as simply a mathematical formulation, but what they really are is automated decision making.” — Safiya Noble
Search engines offer another example of algorithmic impact on culture. Racism, sexism, and many other perspectives condemned by society are brought to the forefront. For example, a search for “Latin Women” or “Black Girls” on Google will quickly return pornographic or overtly sexualized images of women. When this search is performed on a library catalogue search these results would be almost impossible to reach. All search engines have access to the same information sources and publications that the library would have, yet we see another world emerge. Is it one we want?
I would argue it isn’t, but that is simply one actors opinion in a much larger system. What is important to note however, is that algorithms represent more than just one actor. The results returned by search engines impact billions of people as does social media interactions. They are a megaphone of information in an auditorium. They cut through the noise quickly, but is the message what we need to hear?
For all the faults and potential pitfalls of algorithmic actors, there is still hope. They are not permanent. Algorithms can be rewritten with new values at their core if that’s what people demand. Build a time machine, go back to 1250 AD, and try demanding anything of the Catholic Church. Maybe they’ll let you keep your tongue. We live in a relatively free society despite what mechanisms may prevent us from attaining information quickly the information is still attainable.
We are merely at the beginning of this new world built on automation. We as the benefactors and victims of that automation need to assess the values, systems, and strategies in place, and answer one core question. What is the world we want to create? Then the algorithms and their creators need to fall in line.
