The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same
The long read: From the generic hipster cafe to the ‘Instagram wall’, the internet has pushed us towards a kind of global ubiquity – and this phenomenon is only going to intensify
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How bleak. A couple proprietary algorithms driving millions of business decisions across the globe, everyday.
Before algorithms, it was just whoever was considered the best consultant. I don't really see much difference here between using humans to look at data and figure out what things may have an effect at bringing in customers or otherwise increasing profits and a machine doing the same thing other than the machine doing it faster and better.
That's just on the whole "everything is the same" front, though. It is bleak for the humans that are going to be replaced by the machine.
What's different is the feedback loop and the globalization. Yes, it's just capitalism, ie giving the people what they "want", but it's really not just the same as someone suggesting that customers like clean lines and plants.
The feedback loop is the most disturbing part, IMO. You have an algorithm deciding what gets popular, which means creatives hoping to be financially sustainable have to cater to it to some degree, which reinforces the algorithm and removes a little bit of uniqueness from society.
Creative people have always had to consider"what sells" to some degree if they want to make money from their effort, but we've gone beyond artists making "art with some degrees of marketability" into making products called "art" with little of the emotional/intellectual "challenge' that comes with unique works.
