The Difference Between the Mass Media and the Algorithmic Threat to Subjectivity

As algorithms rise to play larger roles in how we interact with the world, how are they recursively acting upon us to play larger roles in how we experience ourselves? What, in short, does an algorithmic society do to consciousness?

Eran Fisher is a professor of sociology at the Open University of Israel, and has a recent book out titled: Algorithms and Subjectivity: On the Subversion of Critical Knowledge. In it, he digs beneath the more obvious conversation around how algorithms are changing our worlds, to ask how they're changing our-selves.

In the conversation, we discuss:

• How do algorithms change the promise of freedom society offers?
• What does it mean for algorithms to "undermine" subjectivity?
• How do algorithms pose different threats to freedom than mass media of the 20th century?
• How much of the threat of algorithms derives from their for-profit deployment in a world with insufficient mechanisms for democratic data governance?

Plus tangents into psychedelics, the politics of subjectivity, and all that sort of good stuff.

Enjoy!