All the Algorithms, All of the Time

Growing up, I do wonder how many times I heard the world algorithm spoken as if it were of the occult. It was the boogeyman of the primordial internet, math made a monster. The whole of the 2010s, I suppose, was the notion of the algorithm torn asunder, inspected, and regulated. I wholly guarantee that there isn’t a single soul in this class that doesn’t possess any familiarity with the topic. It’s everywhere, and that’s why it shouldn’t be here. It’s not that it isn’t relevant, or wouldn’t be interesting, but that it’s been covered ad-infinitum. It’d be a better use of our time pivoting to burgeoning topics rather than treading old ground. Algorithms can still come up, and I’m sure they will, but they don’t need a distinct unit. We know where they lie, we know how they function, and we know, to varying degrees, how detrimental they are. I could make the same argument for Attention and the Feed, but the point’s been made. The internet is ever-evolving, so let’s focus on that change.