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The Modern Algorithm of Chance

These days algorithms rule much of the world. From how supply chains are managed to how vehicles run their engines to the media that many of us watch on the various streaming services. I assume that most of you know that algorithms drive what you see on social media, on YouTube, and even the search results you get, and what you see might be different than what I see. There is a constant search for a perfect, or at least, very targeted way of getting you what you want.

Or at least what the algorithm thinks you want. However, is that the best way for algorithms to be designed? It is for the companies that want to profit from your attention, but is this intense personalization better for us?

There is an interesting article on music discovery, focusing on Spotify, since they are one of the largest streaming services. The article talks about the algorithm and how it tries to match selections to our tastes, basically a complex data analysis of our choices along with metadata that's been created around data that's hard to classify. There are attributes assigned to songs, but are these the attributes that make sense? That's a topic for another day. The result of this is that Spotify tends to recommend more of what we already listen to, which has also driven artists to change how they produce songs since the algorithm matters.

This seems like a similar challenge to what I've seen with the written word. A long time ago many of us consumed the words (with less choice) in newspapers, books, and other physical media. However, we often ran into random things that were different because of our physical paths in life. We might encounter books in a shop or library and be attracted to a cover for some random reason. We might pick up an unexpected work lying adjacent to one in which we were interested and discover something new.

The way we look at books, or anything, changes when we browse and randomly wander the world. These days, we have less of that, with algorithms in electronic systems that guide us further on a path we're walking, not allowing for chance encounters, or even wildly different thoughts because we stumbled on something. Even in our social media, this doesn't often happen. I'd hope that we might encounter a recommendation from another we wouldn't otherwise see, but the promotion of certain feeds and the glut of viral re-sharing often ensures that we don't see many random things. Instead, most of us see the same thing that many others do.

Those of us who have studied computer science know random things are hard to create in computer systems. Building algorithms that embrace randomness isn't something many of us focus on, instead trying for matches that reinforce or duplicate something our clients already want/use/see/etc. That has helped create many businesses in the digital world, but I'm not sure that those businesses are always good for the world.

I don't have a good solution for random chance, other than talking with others, especially those who live different lives from you, and embracing the way they view the world. Hopefully that leads to a book, movie, or other chance encounter that you might not otherwise have.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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