Just read three article on algorithmic price fixing: one in the Atlantic; one at ftc.gov; and one at The American Prospect. Throw in AI, and your goose is being price fixed on an exponential scale.
Add that the the inflation bag of tricks & treats.
Three Algorithms in a Room - The American Prospect
2 Likes
… very interesting article. … and this is only going on with airfare and real estate … right.
So much for free and open markets I guess. (pssst. they never really were either to begin with).
Yet another piece of evidence that this country is so, so screwed.
2 Likes
When’s the last time you tried buying a ticket for a sporting event? It’s a wild ride.
2 Likes
Concur. I bought tix to take a friend to a concert earlier this year. Miserable multi-step process with new ‘accounts’ that need to be set up, new passwords, apps downloaded onto desktop and phone to display ‘ticket’ QR codes, separate ones for parking etc. Miserable for a luddite old technophobe like me. Parking doesn’t take cash anymore. No printed facsimiles of printed tickets anymore. Never again.
2 Likes
And then Ticketmaster’s newly released sale site. Tried to buy concert tickets for a very large venue near me. Had to create an account in advance, got in the queue for the minute of boxoffice opening. The moment it opened there were over 50K ‘accounts’ (probably fake ones belonging to scalpers) ahead of me. 15 min later 90 pct of tix were sold when my turn in queue came up. And truly stupid prices on top of that. What a scam…
2 Likes
Tried getting tickets for a hockey game. Prices seemed to change every time I checked back in on the site, like airline tickets. Definitely some wierd algorithms recognizing my IP address. It’s nuts.
2 Likes
Now you might ask, What’s Virginia Woolf got to do with all this?
Well, she said, On or about December 1910 human character changed.
She’s remembered for that line from one of her characters.
The idea that something so vast and nebulous could be so precisely dated is certainly questionable.
Yet, when it comes to algorithms; in that uncanny valley, nothing is above possibility.
Like, June 2016.
That’s when Facebook, Twitter and Instagram introduced the algorithmic feed.
Instead of displaying content in chronology; social media platforms started using predictive software; or, started trying to guess and mold our experience, by pushing some things and suppressing others. Whatever the case; it was proprietary.
In other words, closely guarded secrets
The result was a shift from a chronological, to an algorithmic timeline - introducing a loop of doubt - to which we all have to pass through.
In other words, Why am I being shown this?
The question of why an algorithm should choose to show us certain posts; adds another layer of paranoia - one impossible to solve. We’ve now become more aware of agents trying to manipulate our perceptions for their own, and/or political ends.
Algorithmic decisions are shaping our social world.
These social algorithms suspend: spontaneity, authenticity, and chance.
Now that’s when human character changed[June 2016]; at least, in social media.