The Mystical Magic of Algorithms

I recently watched a captivating documentary about algorithms. If you’re surprised that I put the words “captivating”, “documentary” and “algorithms” in the same sentence all I can say is “I know…me too”. Prompted by my husband’s interest, the family watched…and then was mesmerized by “The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms”.

My friends, this should be required watching for us all. Most of us know that Google uses algorithms to seemingly read our minds. You might even know that algorithms influence apps and video games and your GPS. But the complete integration into modern life as reflected in the documentary was eye-opening to me. This is pure information literacy. My work and writing usually focus on MEDIA literacy, a focus on television, video games, apps, books, etc. But information literacy is it's close cousin. Maybe even its’ older, wiser cousin. Like my cousin Terry.

Many of the skills and concepts central to an understanding of media literacy are equally aligned with information literacy. The American Library Association defines information literacy as the ability to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." Really, when DON’T we need to do that? Understanding where our information comes from and how it gets to us has become even more complicated as the magic of algorithms has taken over technology. After watching the documentary, I understand more about this, but I'm sure I'm missing 90% of the places where algorithms influence how I move through life. My daily reliance on search engines makes it abundantly clear to me how incredibly useful algorithms are. What I understand less is how the creators of algorithms, most often mathematicians, influence the outcomes of those algorithms. When it comes to information, they are influencing the answers I get and the content I get to see. Their algorithms decide which information rises to the top and which information gets pushed to the bottom. Their algorithms determine which information is seen and which is not seen. (Really, who is looking on page 2 or 3 of the Google search?) And it’s the information that is seen that has the most power.

I know it's not possible for me to understand everything about the new technologies invented during my lifetime, but there's a growing piece of me that feels I’m neglecting understanding how algorithms work at all. It’s just like some mystical magic. I've heard myself say to others “oh yeah, that was because of the algorithm”-- like I know what I’m talking about. But I haven’t a clue! I’m literally handing over the power to someone else, some algorithm-creating decision-maker.

Of course, I do this in many aspects of my life. I trust experts to diagnose my body and my car. I trust a “more knowledgeable other” to guide my finances and my yoga practice. Learning is based on connecting with more knowledgeable others. That’s the basis of Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory. He believed learning was dependent upon social interactions with people who have a better understanding or skill than we do and that such learning takes place within a “zone of proximal development”.

The MKO in the documentary is mathematics professor Marcus du Sautoy. He clearly knows more than I do about algorithms (although, that wouldn’t take much), and he has the skill to explain it to me in a way I can understand. He places it right in my zone of proximal development. For his explanation on how Google works, watch this.

There’s so much information at our fingertips nowadays, it’s easy to throw our hands up and simply give in to the ease someone else has created for us. And I guess I’m not entirely suggesting that you shouldn’t do that. Much like my feeling about media literacy, I think we need to enter such environments with our eyes wide open. The value of the documentary was really in its ability to make me think and build awareness. It even prompted me to want to write about it here. Awareness-building is also the value of the numerous coding programs popping up for kids. Most kids aren’t going to become coders as a career, but they, and we, interact with the results of coders every day. To maintain an ability to think critically about information and technology, we need a basic knowledge of how it works. And even though it’s not always convenient to do so, I know I need to push myself to stay informed about new technologies and how they work. My husband’s push to watch the documentary was lucky for me. His love of technology has been a prompt for me from the first time he pushed me to type a report on his then new Apple Macintosh in the mid-eighties. I promptly proclaimed, “What do I need that for? I have a typewriter!” Clearly, I’m grateful.

The documentary runs one hour. It’s available on Netflix and lots of other spots on the web. Worth the time.