042: John Danaher on “Will the Future be Ruled by Algorithm?”

What this episode covers

In this episode we talk with guest John Danaher, a lecturer at National University of Ireland, Galway and blogger. He has coined the term 'Algocracy' to describe a future state of rule by algorithm. We define the term and talk about how modern day algorithms like dating websites, military drones, and tax fraud detection are growing in influence, creating the possibility for algorithmic decision making to unseat democratic institutions and even personal will. Can we really say we are in a democracy if opaque, incomprehensible systems are making many important choices for us? How can we be certain that the algorithm has our interests at heart?

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