Break the Algorithm

Bend not the knee to our AI Overlords

CARROLLTON, TX (GLOB) — In a previous article I shared this quote:

The incentives of this system may not be the cause of our social division, but they certainly don’t help. It’s a system that gets stronger with polarization, feeding on conflict and histrionics. We’ve never had more power to communicate with each other, but it seems increasingly difficult to see each other’s humanity. (Emphasis mine) Source

The incentives of the system. What is meant by that? The author of the article is referring to the algorithms that underlie almost everything that makes computers useful. Useful. Not Dictatorial.

We need to take back our minds.

To do that we need to understand what is happening, and that starts with understanding algorithms. Let’s demystify the term.

An algorithm is an instruction set. More formally, it is a set of instructions written to perform a task or solve a problem. Let’s say you have the problem of hunger and want a pizza. You happen to have a frozen pizza in your freezer.

Now what?

You don’t want to eat a frozen pizza, so you have to augment your problem solving. The immediate problem at service to the “I’m hungry” problem is now how to cook the pizza.

When you pull a frozen pizza out of the freezer and look at the package, you will find a very finite set of instructions. An algorithm.

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Take the pizza out of the package.

3. Place in oven.

4. Set timer for 15 minutes.

5. Remove when golden brown and bubbly.

6. Enjoy it with a nice Chianti. (This is where I should link to some website selling wine that gives me a piece of the action. And if I did that, you might have found this article when searching for Chianti.)

Now, this is not a very precise instruction set, and presumes a lot of knowledge. For example, the instructions above did not say “remove the plastic covering”. The instruction set assumes knowledge of how to preheat an oven, while not melting plastic on your pizza, etc.

To write a complete and error free set of instructions would require a pamphlet covering all the possible ways a person might mess up cooking a pizza. It might have to include things like, “Get off the couch, navigate to the kitchen, open the freezer, retrieve the pizza,” etc.

Now, imagine you have a “smart” refrigerator that logs what you eat, and notes that every Thursday you eat a pepperoni pizza. So, when you pull a pizza, it places a replacement pizza in your shopping cart in your online shopping app.

The fridge has an algorithm that loosely says, “When Pepperoni Pizza inventory goes to Zero, order replacement.” This would be a subset of what I will call the “Give them what they seem to want” master algorithm.

If you let that alone, after a while, you will realize you are eating a pepperoni pizza every Thursday whether you were in the mood for one or not, because that is what is in your freezer. The algorithm has stopped serving you, and is now dictating what you will eat.

When the “Give them what they seem to want” algorithm is applied to Social Media, the same type of thing happens.

As a quick aside, the “Give them what they seem to want” algorithm
is in service to the Uber Algorithm of “Maximize profits”.

This is how some people have become radicalized. It works like this:

You are a teenage boy that sees pictures of WWII Nazi uniforms and think, “Those are bad ass!”

Well, because they kind of are.

So, you start looking for more pictures of WWII uniforms. You wonder about the fashion sense of different nations. The algorithm detects your interest in military uniforms and begins suggesting different sites. You see the WWII French uniforms.

Meh…

You think to yourself, “Snail eating cheese monkeys,” and preferentially select the sites with Nazi uniforms, because, duh. The algorithm detects the focus on Nazis and starts recommending Nazi websites. This takes you to some American Nazi Party site. You start reading stuff about Jews. And more stuff, maybe about how black people are the new Jews.

You can do the math here. 3 months later you might be a skin-head that has an unhealthy knowledge of how to make pipe bombs.

Guess what? The algorithm isn’t designed to make you a radicalized skin head. It’s designed to sell something. It can be innocuous. For example:

You are a teenage boy that is curious about Ancient Rome. You run into an article about Marcus Aurelius.

Stolen from Daniel Ames

You read about his book “Meditations” and order the book. You become interested in other Stoic Philosophy authors. The algorithm detects an interest in ancient philosophy and starts suggesting websites. You read about Plato and Aristotle. You see this picture and learn about the differences between Plato and Aristotle and you think, “That’s bad ass!”

Plato, the Idealist, center left, pointing toward the realm of The Forms. Aristotle his pupil and a Realist, center right, indicating the earth and his focus on Reality and the physical realm.

You become focused on Aristotle, and get more and more sites that deal with Aristotle. Three months later you are boring all your friends, and irritating your teachers by quoting from “Nicomachean Ethics”. So yeah, check out “Why Stoic Philosophy Thrives in Digital Age” by following the Daniel Ames link.

The point? There are two.

First, the algorithm is not conscious. It is literally an instruction set. It will give us more of what ever we have been searching for.

Second, this is under our control; we choose which search returns to open.

How to break the Algorithm?

Well, I mislead the horse to water in hopes you would take a drink. You don’t need to break the algorithm, you need to bend it to your will. How? Here is an algorithm of sorts.

1. Be interested in learning the truth, not winning the argument.

   1. There is objective truth.

   2. 2 + 2 = 4 no matter how badly you want it to be something else.

2. Recognize click bait and don’t click.

   1. Hint - if something elicits an immediate and visceral emotional response, it’s click bait.

   2. If you simply must know more about whatever it is, Google the topic, don’t read the article. They are trying to sell you something.

3. Deliberately seek out opinions that differ from yours.

4. Hold your nose and put on that scopolamine patch and watch both CNN and Fox.

   1. Take a bath afterward to wash the stench off.

   2. Have a drink. For medicinal purposes.

5. Engage in conversations with people IRL.

   1. Develop a circle of friends that you meet with regularly and just talk about stuff.

   2. These friends should also be more interested in truth than emotion.

   3. Discuss everything from the sublime to the ridiculous. There is a lot of truth hiding in both.

6. Support your position with something more than, “Ok snowflake,” or “Whatever Boomer.”

7. If you figure out you are wrong on some issue, then own it and be glad you are a little less stupid. This will be hard. It will make you smart. It will inoculate you against Lies and the Lying Liars that Lie.

8. Pursue the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.

9. Have Fun.

10. Repeat as necessary.

Go forth and make that Algorithm work for you. Bend it like Beckham.