Re: Rage against the Algorithm
Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 11:55 pm
As we have discussed before, I continue to hold this view, for example on our knowledge that night follows day, and similar objective facts of real astronomy.Interbane wrote:The beliefs themselves were dry and pedantic, but I held them strongly. The one I remember most clearly, and the one I didn’t release until after Madarchitect vanished, was that we could somehow “know” objective reality with certainty. Not all of it, but just a few epistemologically foundational locations.
Sounds like chagrin. And your discussion of it sounds like Proust, in search of lost time.Interbane wrote: I realized I was defending it emotionally because in the moment I considered that I could possible be wrong, I felt that deep cognitive regret that's often felt but hard to explain. The feeling is similar to when you bite your tongue and admit you're wrong. It's not exactly regret, not exactly discomfort, and not exactly embarrassment. It's some indefinable and lightweight combination of the three, mixed with a "grounding" effect, like a buzzkill. It's one of those emotions that I don't think you're supposed to be aware of. The emotions pulling the strings of thought are subtle, and such a familiar piece of the machinery of cognition that it's difficult to recognize it as a unique component.
On the theme of the thread, ABC Australia had a great radio interview that you should be able to listen to in the US, https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/pr ... s/12216578
The prejudice of algorithms
Internet algorithms are dividing us, not bringing us together. The assumptions, predictions, and generalisations they make about us are not value neutral or apolitical. Robert Elliott Smith talks to Paul Barclay about the inherent prejudice of algorithms.
Publication: Rage Inside The Machine by Robert Elliott Smith