Algorithms: The Third Co-Evolutionary Force

      In this world the only things that create and control themselves come from nature; from the mountains to the trees to animals to human beings. A new concept of a third “co-evolutionary force” is discussed when Kevin Slavin takes a new spin on algorithms in his TEDTalk called How Algorithms Shape Our World. Slavin begins by briefly coining algorithms as “the math that computers use to decide stuff”; however, irony lives within this description for as the talk continues, we find that algorithms are much, much more than that. Slavin refers to math as “not something we extract and derive from the world, but as something that shapes us.” We can see the math, specifically algorithms, shaping our actions and decisions in the examples given from Wall Street’s use of algorithms in “Black Box Trading”, to Netflix’s use of algorithms to influence what movie we watch next, to the household robotic vacuum “Roomba” using algorithms within the realm of architecture. Whether it is something more complicated at work, or just another common moment of our lives, we see algorithms working discreetly. These examples alone make it quite clear that algorithms are not simply “the math that computers use to decide stuff”, but that they are far more complex, sophisticated, and to an extent, almost natural in that they can do things that humans cannot put their finger on, grasp, and explain.

     While yes, it is obvious that humans created, understand and can explain how Netflix knows that I would probably enjoy “The Wire” after I just tackled two seasons of “House of Cards” in a single weekend, there have been algorithms created which have done things that even their creators cannot explain. For example, Slavin refers back to Wall Street and to an incident known as the “Flash Crash of 2:45” which took place on May 6, 2010 when within five minutes, nine percent of the entire United States stock market disappeared. What exactly happened? Nobody is really sure. Where exactly did it go? Nobody is really sure. Why did it happen? Same answer. There is no clear-cut conclusion that is agreed upon by a majority which leads us to believe that at that point in time the algorithm took over, essentially did whatever it wanted and no human predicted it, or could stop it. This example supports Kelvin’s hypothesis that humans are writing codes that we can no longer completely read and that we are really losing the sense of what is actually happening. There is actually company called Nanex, whose purpose is to find these nearly illegible algorithms, “pin them to the wall like a butterfly,” and try to figure out what exactly they mean and do. It is almost as if this company is trying to figure out the anatomy and makeup of these algorithms similar to how we study nature in our college sciences courses. Some questions I have are, how far do we continue going in creating these complex things that we could quite possibly have no control over? Are we beginning to create new mathematics in which we are testing the waters and letting the prospective benefits outweigh the possible costs? Sure, we have a pretty good grasp over them now, but as these algorithms become more complex and powerful, where does the future lead? But ultimately, have we found something else that is created and then can act on its own, the same way we procreate and have children with their own genetic makeup, who grow to eventually be able to make their own decisions and shape the future?

      As Slavin said, “the landscape was always made by this sort of weird, uneasy collaboration between nature and man. But now there’s this third co-evolutionary force: algorithms... And we will have to understand those as nature, and in a way, they are.”