If you remember Susan Blackmore's fascinating presentation on the evolution of memes and temes, then the concept that much of our own individual and collective behavior is done for the sake of cultural units of selection rather than actual human needs will not be foreign to you.In the following TEDTalk presentation, Kevin Slavin argues that "we're living in a world designed for -- and increasingly controlled by -- algorithms. In this riveting talk, he shows how these complex computer programs determine espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts, and architecture. And he warns that we are writing code we can't understand, with implications we can't control."
I, for one, bow down to our maths overlords :)
this video reminded me of a documentary called Quants: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2FWNWwE3I this tedtalk paints a slightly different and more interesting picture though, open to more questions about being able to represent human nature/choices in algorithmic form. or if it is natural to evolve and change will trying to reduce our preferences to algorithms stifle our ability to do so, or will algorithms simply chart/map our changes along the way? quants the documentary made me wonder more about what possible true utility are we gaining from playing with numbers in this way and what could be a better application of our mental resources?
ReplyDeletethanks for the post. and all the others too.
Thanks for the tip, neighbour, I'll be sure to check it out soon!
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking...to bow before a Mathie’s math would be wise but to bow before their philosophy will mostly, there are exceptions, get you Holy Pythagorean Farts.
ReplyDelete