algorithmic anxiety
in preparation for the RADAR event
algorithmic anxiety
Algorithmic recommendations dictate genres of culture by rewarding particular tropes with promotion in feeds, based on what immediately attracts the most attention.
In 2018, the writer Liz Pelly identified "streambait" as one such genre: the "muted, mid-tempo, melancholy pop" characteristic of Spotify. In 2019, the writer Jia Tolentino similarly ide
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In most areas of computing, programmers write code or train an AI model to achieve specific objectives, such as driving a car without crashing or generating humanlike text. Stanley creates systems that instead evolve, seeking novelty for its own sake. These systems sometimes discover stepping stones toward solutions that couldn’t be achieved via a ... See more
Maven Is a New Social Network That Eliminates Followers—and Hopefully Stress
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... See moreShould the human fashion editor tell you what to like or should it be the algorithmic machine, in the form of the Amazon bookstore, Spotify feed, or Netflix home page? That is the central dilemma of culture in Filterworld.
The former option is mercurial and driven by elite gatekeepers, a powerful group built up over a century of modern cultural ind
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In so many ways to live in 2024 is to be subject to a constant and all-out assault on our attention . It’s the ability to attend to anything — a book, another person, ourselves — that is being eroded. I’m increasingly convinced, then, that the next big vector for inequality is around this most fundamental of human capabilities. The elites are going... See more
David Mattin • New Week #138
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The outcome of such algorithmic gatekeeping is the pervasive flattening that has been happening across culture. By fatness I mean homogenization but also a reduction into simplicity: the least ambiguous, least disruptive, and perhaps least meaningful pieces of culture are promoted the most.
Flatness is the lowest common denominator, an averageness t
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We participate in our own surveillance by signalling our preferences so publicly.
— Filterworld, pg. 134
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I’ve struggled with this balance myself. When the audience responds to something I’ve written, it can be tempting to chase the revenue and viewership by repeating the format. Repeatability and audience fervor can build a business, but kill the artist.
Evan Armstrong • The Art of Scaling Taste
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“It’s published here on the understanding that it will never appear online, because of course, the last thing they’d want is for their favourite places to suddenly become ordinary.”
Steve from Stack Magazine on August’s issue
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