Algohohohoho

A world designed for, and increasingly controlled by algorithms? Most definately a scary notion, quite like a sci-fi dystopian novel. In the video, Kevin listed several examples: espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts and architecture, as areas which complex computer programs have been used to aggregate information and decide outcomes, automatically, without human moderation. Outcomes which any normal human being would find surprising/baffling. A kind of reverse-serendipity, if you will (more like "What the sh*t?").

Algorithms are shaping our world; Yes, but only if we allow them to. Kevin makes a point to highlight that the technological-world is pretty much active, and is capable of producing consequences that have advanced beyond our designs. The Flash Crash example which he cited, revolved around the trading of cyber intelligence on Wall St. and the the high-speed computation frequencies between blackbox algorithms, all operating without human interventions.


No shenanigans, k?

... Thankfully, our local web new aggregators are much dumber, and function OH SO MUCH differently from business intelligence; In contrast, they run at a snail pace, reason being that THEY ARE GENERALLY RELIANT on the inputs of many netizens and in-house regulators, PROVIDING DATA TO HUMANS (mostly).

Take Digg for example: News contributors posts links of news content from the web, and it's algorithm ranks them for display based on the amounts of user diggs/votes, with some degree of randomization. The latest and most highly voted links float up the list, and is seen by more visitors.This gives us a snap-shot of what the citizens of the internet are thinking about at the moment.

Other forms of online news aggregation: Delicious allows registered users to share and tag links, assigning subject matter which can be searched by others. Reddit's approach let users cut/paste extracts of articles, providing a quicker read. There is also the aggregator-of-aggregators, Popurls, which displays top stories of the above sites.

Personally! The best thing about social-algorithm-aggregation, as opposed to traditional mainstream syndications, is that it offers an alternative insight, of pop-culture, collected/shared by the internet... which sometimes prove serendipitous.