After reading the two articles on algorithmic cruelty I came to the realization that code is cold. The code doesn’t feel, the code doesn’t think, the code just does. A code will follow its directives, accomplish its task and then repeat. But codes didn’t just appear randomly. Codes and algorithms aren’t a natural part of this world; they’re man-made. So the truth is that it isn’t the code that’s cold but it’s us, humanity.<\/p>\n
More specifically, the cold ones are the creators of the codes and algorithms and the corporations that allowed this code to exist. They created programs that were efficient but focused on the masses instead of the individual. They created programs that were centered around the living because the harsh truth is the dead don’t matter to these tech companies. The dead can’t use social media or buy products. The dead serve no purpose for the company and that’s why they weren’t considered in the algorithm. The company also doesn’t care how death can personally affect the living.<\/p>\n
I wonder if this generation is really as distanced from death as we think. Sure we live longer on average but death is all around us. Just recently we heard about the tragic shooting in New Zealand, and while it was terrible it isn’t anything new unfortunately; gun violence is something that happens on a daily basis in America. I wonder if we’ve reverted to Victorian times where death is so apart of our daily lives that we are desensitized to it. Maybe that’s why these codes were written the way they were. Maybe the programmer and the people in charge didn’t even acknowledge the dead because it doesn’t happen as often and because it’s apart of our daily lives.<\/p>\n
Our generation is more complicated than others because while we can live longer we can die just as easily. Unlike the Victorians we read about where death at a young age was a virtual certainty, we have a longer life expectancy. But because of our technological advancements, we’ve built tools that make it easier to live and save lives but also easier to die and take them. Death is close and far at the same time which puts us in this weird middle-void space where we’ve become cold towards death as a result. I believe this thinking has influenced our subconscious and now it’s showing. The cold cruel code is just one example.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After reading the two articles on algorithmic cruelty I came to the realization that code is cold. The code doesn’t feel, the code doesn’t think, the code just does. A code will follow its directives, accomplish its task and then repeat. But codes didn’t just appear randomly. Codes and algorithms aren’t a natural part of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-b"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9Ga-dj","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}