algorithms unhinged 'like economics, computer science has its preferred models and implicit assumptions about the world. when programmers are taught algorithmic thinking, they are told to venerate efficiency as a paramount consideration. this is perfectly understandable. an algorithm with an ungainly number of steps will gum up the machinery, and a molasseslike server is a useless one. but efficiency is also a value. when we speed things up, we're necessarily cutting corners, we're generalizing. algorithms can be gorgeous expressions of logical thinking, not to mention a source of ease and wonder. they can track down copies of obscure nineteenth-century tomes in a few milliseconds; they put us in touch with long-lost elementary school friends; they enable retailers to deliver packages to our doors in a flash. very soon, they will guide self-driving cars and pinpoint cancers growing in our innards. but to do all these things, algorithms are constantly taking our measure. they make decisions about us and on our behalf. the problem is that when we outsource thinking to machines, we are really outsourcing thinking to the organizations that run the machines.' - franklin foer 171218 what's it to you? who go blather from