The Imagined History of the Algorithm

Dispatches from the debate that would not die

Carito Orellana (CC BY NC SA)

It’s worth remembering that the battles around “is the internet fragmenting society” have been basically going on forever.

From the The Long Tail, Chapter 11, sixteen years ago:

Is a fragmented culture a better or worse culture? Many believe that mass culture serves as a sort of social glue, keeping society together. But if w…