( A four-minute read)

We all urgently need to consider the implications of allowing commercial interests and governments to use algorithms to analyse our habits: Not because they are becoming all-powerful, that might turn into a source of repression, but because they are exploiting us all for profit.

They make decisions about us and on our behalf.

They are now integrated into our lives. We’re already halfway towards a world where algorithms run nearly everything. As their power intensifies, wealth will concentrate towards them. They will ensure the 1 per cent-99 per cent divide gets larger.

If you’re not part of the class attached to algorithms, then you will struggle.

On the one hand, they are good because they free up our time and do mundane processes on our behalf, but the problem is that when we outsource thinking to machines we are really outsourcing thinking to the organizations that run the machines.

At the moment ignoring the fact that they are driving the cost of living up it is not about algorithms per se, but about the way society is structured with regard to data use and data privacy.

As technology evolves, everything is going up in price.

Raw materiel’s are going up leap and bounds because of a dictatorship of data, that is concentrating on how to generate the most profit.

As profit seeking algorithms power intensifies, wealth will concentrate towards them.

They do so not out of the goodness of their little algorithmic hearts, but rather because they earn a “fee” for this service.

There are many different types of algorithms at play, with different intentions and impacts, however there is one thing that is becoming quite clear day by day that they are driving the human market makers out of business by being smarter and faster.

They are upending the nature of business, how government works and the way we live, from healthcare to education.

We should not allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use. It’s impossible to do this perfectly. How are they being used to access and interpret “our” data? And by whom?

It won’t be long before big data denies us a bank loan or considers us unfit for a surgical operation, but we can’t learn the explicit reasons because the variables that went in programming them were so myriad and complex?

There is currently an awkward marriage between data and algorithms.

Big data is even change how we think about the world and our place in it. (Penalizing people based on what they are predicted to do, not what the have done.)

Taken in the widest sense, algorithms OWNED BY MONOPOLIES are now responsible for the vast majority of activity on modern stock markets.

The well-being of our pensions, shareholdings, savings etc – are now largely determined by algorithmic vagaries.

Retail algorithms don’t scare me as we still have free will. However Algorithms are increasingly determining our collective futures.

Wherever we use computers, we rely on algorithms: With so much data around, and the ability to process it, big data is the bedrock of new companies profit.

Can we regulate them? I think not.

If you were leader of your country, what would you do?

I would have, Science, technology and inclusive innovation through education, on the national agenda.  Education free and equal for all.

Unfortunately this will not happen. Even if it did Profit seeking Algorithms will still be exploiting every weakness.    

There is only one defense.

WE MUST RE NATIONALIZE OUR SOCIAL SERVICES, SO ALL BENEFIT NOT JUST THE FEW. Nationalize what is important, Health, Power, Water, Education.

The key outcome of nationalization is the redirection of revenues to the country’s government instead of private operators who may export funds with no benefit to the host country.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.