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Web 2.0 and Algorithmic Bias Have you ever noticed that the news — and your YouTube homepage — are becoming more skewed toward the edges? The volume has gone up, but the substance has gone down. Well: a. You're not crazy b. Many people agree with you c. The data supports this phenomenon The immediate question then is: why is this happening? If your answer is “algorithms,” you're not alone. Algorithms are blamed for everything bad about the internet — and often the world. But why are algorithms bad? Is math fundamentally evil? Or are the people designing and tuning algorithms evil? To answer that, we need two things: high-school algebra and basic neuroscience. 1. High School Algebra Let’s say I own a website or an app that makes money from advertising. My obvious goal is to maximize ad revenue. That is my goal Y. To maximize Y, I need to make sure ads are: viewed (CPM) clicked (CPC) and that users spend time on the platform That is my derived goal y. To maximize Y, I must maximi...

A journey from neurons to guilt, from prediction to philosophy, from perception to selfhood. 1. The Humble Neuron This is a neuron: For simplicity sake I'll just draw it like this:  >----< It’s a special type of cell — a nerve cell — responsible for processing and transmitting information in the brain and throughout the body. There are about 86 billion neurons in the human brain alone. On its own, it doesn’t do much.  - It doesn’t think, feel, or decide. - It holds no memory, no guilt, no remorse. But when a strong enough signal reaches it — through the receiving branches called dendrites — the neuron fires: sending an electrical impulse down its long arm, the axon, toward other neurons. At the end of the axon, the signal must cross a tiny gap — a synapse — where it becomes chemical and activates the next neuron: Once again for simplicity stake I'll draw it like this:  >---<○>---< And here's where it gets interesting: - The more often two neurons fire to...