An algorithm is a device for solving problems. Finding solutions. It will follow a set of rules to find the best way to solve that problem. Simple. You wanna drive from Luton to Manchester (though no idea why you would want to), an algorithm will work out distances, the speed of the roads, factor in roadworks or accidents, if its sufficiently ‘live’ and come up with your answer. Probably ‘don’t bother; there’s nothing there’. Or creating a recipe so that every step is in the right order, maximising use of time.

That’s what Ronnie Algorithm invented them for, back in 1857 or 1972, possibly 1653.

What he didn’t envisage, when he created the first one, working out how to kill a Tyrannosaurus for dinner without getting killed, was that they’d be used by unscrupulous tech giant companies to lead our children towards suicide or our little boys towards… the manosphere!!!

Yet that’s what they do. Because if you take the algorithm to ‘make me as much money as you possibly can’ and hook it up to a supercomputer, you end up in the world we currently occupy. Well, in fact, not the world I occupy, but the one our children and their children do.

We all know about Molly Russell, the lovely little 14 year-old who killed herself after being bombarded with self-harm and suicide options on her phone. And now Mark Zukerberg is being sued by some parents because his social media platforms are addictive and destructive. And they have lost children too, like poor Molly’s dad. .

As professions go, this was not particularly an option when I was a kid, but there’s a geezer who plays video games online and monetises it by having over a million followers. That’s one million no-hope, brain-dead total fucking morons who spend their hours watching someone else kill aliens and monsters with the assorted weaponry he picks up along the way. I mean: really? But the point is that this ‘gamer’ dude, has now shut down. He makes millions and millions from it, but he’s disgusted that whilst watching him, the kids have to see adverts. Nothing’s free in this world. And those adverts are directed by YouTube’s algorithms for the target market. The young. Predominantly boys (girls are generally not as stupid and can find a better use for their time). And the ‘ads’, chosen by the algorithms, direct these ‘kids’ towards either porn sites or to the ‘manosphere’, that toxically misogynistic region filled with Andrew Tates and other muscle-bound ‘roid-monkeys pumped with testosterone who encourage these minors into the abuse of all women. Except their mums. Love yer mum, screw all the others, CONSENT NOT A REQUIREMENT. IT IS YOUR RIGHT!!! Just watch these porn movies and you’ll learn how women love to be strangled and tortured. LOVE IT!!!

The social media companies have the power to control their algorithms. And their advertisers. But for them its just an equation. Cost of potential law suits (few mil) vs the gain from toxic advertisers (loads of billions). Something needs to change. Kids are dying, FFS.

My football team’s dying too. In its death throes. I’m not sure what medical advances can save them, but it sure ain’t Igor Tudor. God help us.

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx