We fall in love, meet new friends, choose where to eat, and determine how we will get there through ranked indexes. The entirety of our experience has become mediated by these algorithms. Sometimes these indexes are visible, for example when we run a quick search to find a restaurant nearby on Google Maps. Other times
Malcom, Growth Master
By Victor Balcells, Translation by Jennifer May Reiland Error is boundless. / Nor hope nor doubt, / Though both be groundless, / Will average out. — John Milton, Paradise Lost When I was in doubt about a website, I would call on Malcom. He worked inside a glass fish tank in which he was isolated
Riding the Algorithm: Repurposing delivery workers’ data into a digital commons
Working under management algorithms A motorcycle spins in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in South London. The driver circles the building trying to centre the GPS signal on his smartphone. He turns a few times, waiting for the delivery app, to which he is connected, to correctly track his position. Unless the app matches
A life can change your swipe: On the offline impressions of online dating
“Tinder without Alkisti is like pizza without cheese,” said the notification I received some weeks ago on my mobile phone. Initially I found it funny, appreciating that the marketing team of the app does not take itself too seriously. But then I thought, pizza without cheese is not that bad. So, why does Tinder want me? Or
Alle Rechner stehen still, wenn dein starker Arm es will
Die Digitalisierung konnte ihr Versprechen, Lohnabhängige von Arbeit zu befreien, längst nicht einhalten. Viel mehr haben sich neue Formen der Erwerbsarbeit und Prekarisierung im digitalen Raum aufgetan. Deshalb ist es notwendig, den Blick im Kampf gegen die Ungleichheit in der Digitalökonomie über das Digitale hinaus zu richten, findet unser Autor. Die Zeit kurz nach Jahrtausendwende
Rating and Revolutions Speculative politics at the Age of Teslaism
Bahar Noorizadeh in conversation with Júlia Nueno In Bahar Noorizadeh’s film Teslaism: Economics after the end of the end of the future, we find Elon Musk in his self-driving Tesla (which also acts as his AI assistant and lover) going to the company shareholders meeting in a post-gamified Berlin landscape. The car speeds through an
