# Protect Me From What I Want • ongoing by Tim Bray

<https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/11/28/On-Algorithms>

- Host: [tbray.org](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/tbray.org/)
- Saved: November 30, 2022 (2022-12-01T03:26:05Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/c3f542ba5311/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/c3f542ba5311.json

## What Jamie wrote

Bray offers an optimisic perspective on using algorithms to display content to people, however with a very huge caveat. I have added the bold. 

> An algorithm is not intrinsically bad. **As long as we understand that it represents the interests of whoever paid to have it constructed.** I think an algorithm with human values that simply wanted to enrich experience is perfectly possible.
> 
> I haven't seen one, probably because nobody has ever had a financial incentive to construct it.

I shared in [Weekly Thing #152](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/weekly-thing-152-juneteenth-uncomfortable/), highlighting that any algorithm must have a goal.

> Anytime that you are looking at content in something other than time order, ask yourself what the goal of the system behind it is.

Connect Bray's point and mine, and you get the problem. Bray highlights good algorithms that help us filter through noise, and suggests a "Algorithms for the people by the people" kind of idea. It would be cool to see such a thing, but most place that isn't possible. His idea of using Mastadon as a place for experimentation is a good one. Bray himself would hate my additional suggestion (he's a strong critic of all things crypto), of using data held in public blockchains which require full open access to both the data and the function.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT236: Weekly Thing #236 / ChatGPT, Reading, Legitimacy](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/236/), Notable

## Same host

- [Field-Value Automata](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b400f0cea6be/) (tbray.org, June 2, 2022)
- [Just Don’t](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b473f7790e92/) (tbray.org, November 10, 2022)
- [Privacy Is OK](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6b9e75e6efab/) (tbray.org, January 5, 2023)
- [Amazon Q4 2022 Financials • ongoing by Tim Bray](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/775e7e488fbe/) (tbray.org, February 2, 2023)
- [Easy Cameras — ongoing by Tim Bray](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/2023ca6ddd26/) (tbray.org, May 4, 2023)

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## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/11/28/On-Algorithms