[paraxion]

I think that's absolutely true; it's easy to demonize the algorithm itself which is, when all's said and done, just dumb code with a heck of a lot of "if" statements. The problem is generally systemic, and worse still, it's often financial: algorithms are a way to make plausible things that otherwise wouldn't be possible within financial and time constraints. They are, at best, shortcuts. The problem is, increasingly, they are being used as blunt, impersonal instruments in situations that require humanity, or compassion - they let governments and corporations disassociate from the reality that every record processed by The Algorithm actually represents a living, breathing person.

In the words of Terry Pratchett: "Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things."

[_aavaa_]

I agree with you, though I think that his point is even more, well, pointed.

It isn’t that using “algorithms” is, as you say, a shortcut for bureaucracies. It is that they would do this exact thing with human decisions making if it were economical. The “algorithms” would be instantiated in people if only it were practical to do so.

The “algorithms” are simply a Python version of the bureaucracies‘ business logic.