As we think through the role that algorithms should play in our lives—and the various feats of automation that they enable—two questions are particularly important. First, is a given instance of automation feasible? Second, is it desirable? Computer scientists have been asking both questions for decades in the context of artificial intelligence.
The author explains “the algorithmic takeover” of the past three decades by linking it to Wall Street’s fascination with algorithmic trading, whereby traders recede into the background and leave it to the algorithms to identify and act on arbitrage opportunities. Judging by the recent Knight Capital debacle—one of the main cheerleaders for algorithmic trading squandered $440 million when one of its algorithms went rogue—this is, indeed, an important subject. But is Wall Street the driving force behind the culture-wide algorithmic fetish so aptly diagnosed by Mr. Steiner? Or is it just along for the ride?
While “Automate This” hints at some of these thorny issues, it says very little about the ways to resolve them. The real question isn’t whether to live with algorithms—the Sumerians got that much right—but how to live with them. As Vonnegut understood over a half-century ago, an uncritical embrace of automation, for all the efficiency that it offers, is just a prelude to dystopia.
Interesting food for thought. I’ve been programming since I was in my mid-teens. But that doesn’t mean I support automation just for the sake of it. For example, I believe Google’s project for self-driven cars solves the wrong problem: we don’t need to outsource driving just so we can spend more time surfing the net, video chatting, playing games, etc. What we really need to do is either reduce the need to drive anywhere in the first place, or provide quality public transport when we do. Maybe self-driven cars are a solution for a billionaire’s problem? So, important questions for any proposed automation projects include:
- Is there an actual problem to be solved?
- Do the benefits outweigh the costs?