New Books in Political Science José Marichal, "You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem: Renegotiating the Socio-Technical Contract" (Policy Press, 2025)
Oct 21, 2025
José Marichal, a Professor of Political Science at California Lutheran University, delves into the complex relationship between democracy and algorithms in his thought-provoking discussion. He argues that we are trapped in a socio-technical contract, trading autonomy for algorithmic predictability. Marichal warns against the dangers of engagement-driven algorithms, which stifle public discourse and amplify extreme content. He advocates for reshaping our interaction with technology to encourage creativity and serendipity, urging us to embrace our role as 'algorithmic problems' for a healthier democracy.
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Algorithms As A Socio-Technical Contract
- Marichal frames our relationship with platforms as a socio-technical contract, not a simple market exchange.
- He argues we trade autonomy for curated certainty and relief from information anxiety.
Pandemic Led To Machine-Learning Epiphany
- Marichal learned Python and machine learning during the pandemic to better understand algorithms.
- That study sparked the core metaphor and argument of his book.
People Optimizing Like Machine Models
- Learning how machine learning optimizes revealed a metaphor for human adaptation.
- Marichal compares gradient descent to people marching toward predictable, minimized-error behaviors.
