Abstract

COSTA, Pedro. From tool to algorithmic intellect: surviving between digital dilemmas. JDMI [online]. 2021, vol.4, n.10, pp.21-37.  Epub July 29, 2021. ISSN 2184-3120.  https://doi.org/10.34624/jdmi.v4i10.24568.

The operationalization of Big Data and algorithms has dominated the current digital landscape (Boyd & Crawford, 2012; Cukier & Myer-Schonberger, 2013; Coté, Gerbaudo & Pybus, 2016). The mode, velocity, variety and amount of data operated by algorithms have interfered with the contemporary subject's in the ways of thinking, feeling and acting (Jenkins et al, 2014; Helbing, 2015; Kitchin, 2014). The effects are not always the most positive, despite the factual increase in information and knowledge generated. One of the most negative sides is, for Tristan Harris, former head of ethics at Google, the clear absence of an “ethical design” in the way that companies that manage digital platforms operate (Patino, 2019). The capture of attention, the manipulation of interests and opinions and the behavioral modeling that has been initiated by digital companies aim at fundamentally economic, but also political, results. For Lanier (2018), this dynamic is generating an unprecedented global lack of control in communication, and with unpredictable impacts.

This article aims to reflect on how two algorithms (PageRank and EdgeRank) overtook the tool function. In our opinion, they moved towards the function of contingent intellect, tending towards the reproduction of a world based on a numerical logic, that is, assuming that the one who wins the most sponsors, who can most engage and who can grow the most wins quantitatively. In short, it is more able to capture the attention of the subjects.

Keywords : algorithms; attention; surveillance; tools; intellects.

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