The Algorithm God
From Science Fiction to Non-Fiction in the blink of a bionic eye
There are many good YouTube videos about how to navigate the music business now. The one I partially watched last week dealt with the Algorithm God. That’s the deity artists apparently have to worship now. Because if we do not please the Algorithm God, our crops [art] will wither on the vine, plagues of locusts [piles of unsold CDs, canvases, manuscripts] will descend upon our mental health, and our Income Stream will turn to blood.
Some years ago I had the idea to create a saxophone membership website. A program was purchased which purported to analyze all your “content” (do we not hate this word) and “optimize” it for the internet. In other words: make it palatable to the taste of the Algorithm God.
After a number of weeks spent writing articles and collecting supporting materials (photos, documents, lists, etc.) and running them through the program’s optimizer, my initial enthusiasm for the project took out a subscription to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and nose-dived into the dirt.
The optimizer kept telling me I needed more keywords. So instead of a paragraph such as the following:
“The saxophone is not a difficult instrument to learn. However, as with any musical instrument–or any skill at all–a great deal of effort is required to become good. Yet if one commits to a daily practice schedule and has specific goals regarding the type of music one wants to play, one can expect to achieve at least an average level of proficiency in fewer than ten years.”
The program would correct the paragraph to read something like this:
“The saxophone is not a hard instrument to learn. But with any instrument–not only the saxophone–you need to try hard if you want to be good. If you promise to practice saxophone every day, and work on the kind of saxophone music you want to play, you will be able to play the saxophone pretty well in less than ten years.”
The program wanted me to rewrite all my text for the comprehension level of a 2nd grader. I came down with a bad case of Dev-Driven-Data-Indigestion.
There I was, a professional writer, dumbing down my writing to please the god of an illiterate and culturally backward Technocracy. Even though I was told I would burn in hell, I vowed I would no longer pray to this god. And yet, the god has become seemingly more powerful by the day!
As millions upon millions of humans convert to the new Algorithm religion, forsaking their prior religions such as Nature, Philosophy, Literature, and Good Taste, it actually seems forbidden to mention those religions, let alone practice them.
The new religion requires a new vocabulary conducive to texting, obeisance to emojis, and an uptick in purchase orders for the new equipment needed to properly display one’s loyalty to the Algorithm.
Oh, woe is us, beset by pocked Trojan Horses at every turn–surely we behold the Appaloosapocalypse!
All must bow to the Algorithm…or else…face the Palantir Inquisition.
The only way out is through quiet rebellion, friends. To paraphrase the Nike slogan: Just Don’t Do It.
“Easy for you to say,” I hear my younger colleagues assert. “You’re practically retired! A geezer! You can’t even play over quarter note=200 anymore!”
Yes, all that is true. That’s why I leave it to the younger generations of artists to lead us into the new paradigm. Maybe in the future there won’t even be any money, everything will be a barter system…who knows. In any case, it behooves all of us, whether professional or amateur artists, and those living life artistically, to continually rethink our motivations during these times of upheaval.
All that said, there’s always room for sabotage!
If you find it obnoxiously controlling to be fed automated suggestions every time you go on Amazon, YouTube, Spotify, Facebook et. al…if your Alexa starts recommending formal attire boutiques right after you and your spouse discuss your niece’s wedding…if you see the social credit score system on the polluted horizon…if you resent your government spending trillions on colonialist wars while people can barely afford to go food shopping…if you lost your job to AI…if you can’t sleep because of the new 5G tower they built next to your house…if you don’t want to eat crickets…if you suspect the global noose has your goose in a slow cooker…if you want to own things and be happy…you’re not wrong.
Use cash. Grow food. Ride a bicycle. Put a VPN on your devices. Throw a monkey wrench into the algorithm by putting on a video you would never watch while you’re vacuuming, and clicking on the most obscure singer/songwriter tracks on Spotify even if you don’t listen to them.
Did you know that Amazon keeps a detailed record of your viewing and buying patterns? If there’s a difference between that and casing your house, I think the line of demarcation is pretty damn fine. You can [partially] delete the file Amazon has on you by going to “Your Shopping Preferences.”
Fifty years ago my dad tossed me a paperback and said, “read this.” It was a science fiction novel set in a future where everyone is surveilled 24/7 and all personal info, habits and preferences are a matter of record. Furthermore, once a year everyone is required to wear a monitoring device that measures their blood pressure, skin temperature, and other biometrics.
The hero of the story decides to escape, much like the protagonist in Ayn Rand’s Anthem. He disguises himself, but because the surveillance system is so advanced, while on the lam he also has to order food he hates and wear clothes he wouldn’t be caught dead in, to throw them off the track.
Call me paranoid, but that’s why I always pay cash in a restaurant and at the supermarket, and why I erase my “Shopping Preferences” from Amazon. Among other things.
Because the science fiction of fifty years ago is now non-fiction.
Damn the algorithm, full speed ahead! Go to your studio and make stuff!
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I agree, the answer is rebellion. Turn it all off. Ignore it. Or use it how you like, not how “it wants.” We really need to become skilled practitioners of non-compliance with odious interference.
When the rebellion reaches critical mass, change will ensue. Individuals own the power to choose. So use it. Thanks for your perspective. We all matter really.
One of the things that I like about being old and retired is that none of that shit matters to me. I purchase from Amazon when I can't get what I need somewhere else. I think that I've made one purchase in the past 5 yrs. It seems like those in charge have read Orwell and Huxley and thought they were good ideas and began implementing them.