The Rise of Algocracy—Algorithmic Government: New at Reason

Will government officials dare to contradict what their computers are telling them?

Algorithms are everywhere, and in most ways they make our lives better. In the simplest terms, algorithms are procedures or formulas aimed at solving problems. Implemented on computers, they sift through big databases to reveal compatible lovers, products that please, faster commutes, news of interest, stocks to buy, and answers to queries.

Dud dates or boring book recommendations are no big deal. But John Danaher, a lecturer in the law school at the National University of Ireland, warns that algorithmic decision-making takes on a very different character when it guides government monitoring and enforcement efforts. Danaher worries that encroaching algorithmic governance, what he calls "algocracy," could "create problems for the moral or political legitimacy of our public decision-making processes."