Algorithms are everywhere, supposedly. We are living in an \u201calgorithmic culture,\u201d\u009d to use the author and communication scholar Ted Striphas\u2019s name for it. Google\u2019s search algorithms determine how we access information. Facebook\u2019s News Feed algorithms determine how we socialize. Netflix\u2019s and Amazon\u2019s collaborative filtering algorithms choose products and media for us. You hear it everywhere. \u201cGoogle announced a change to its algorithm,\u201d\u009d a journalist reports. \u201cWe live in a world run by algorithms,\u201d\u009d a TED talk exhorts. \u201cAlgorithms rule the world,\u201d\u009d a news report threatens. Another upgrades rule to dominion: \u201cThe 10 Algorithms that Dominate Our World.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an exercise: The next time you hear someone talking about algorithms, replace the term with \u201cGod\u201d\u009d and ask yourself if the meaning changes. Our supposedly algorithmic culture is not a material phenomenon so much as a devotional one, a supplication made to the computers people have allowed to replace gods in their minds, even as they simultaneously claim that science has made us impervious to religion.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of a larger trend. The scientific revolution was meant to challenge tradition and faith, particularly a faith in religious superstition. But today, Enlightenment ideas like reason and science are beginning to flip into their opposites. Science and technology have become so pervasive and distorted, they have turned into a new type of theology.<\/p>\n