It seems to be the case that more and more, our lives, and what happens in our lives, is ruled by algorithms. Even Publish0x may well use some algorithms to decide which articles are popular or trending. 

Anytime you watch Youtube videos, look on Facebook or Instagram, the algorithms automatically decide what is shown or recommended to you. This is not done by a person.

Increasingly, algorithms are used by governments and large companies to decide whether you are a good citizen or not. Look at China and its social scoring systems.  If the Chinese Government doesn't like your political views or you jaywalk, you may find you can no longer catch a plane or the high speed rail.

So what happens when the Government gets it wrong, the algorithm is incorrect? For example, in Australia, the Australian Government introduced ROBODEBT, an algorithm that automatically calculated whether you owe the Government or not. It resulted in serious impacts on thousands of Australians where the algorithm decided that they owed money and commenced collections and legal action. It has recently been discontinued due to the many errors, but the Australian Government has yet to apologise or even admit it made errors. It does not seem to care about the impacts, both economically and mental health wise that this had on ordinary people.

So, where to from here? There will be more and more algorithms making decisions about you that will have long term and far reaching consequences. Perhaps we need to ask Google, Amazon, and our Governments, what algorithms are being used, and make sure that these organisations are held to account for the decisions that these algorithms make.