What is the "Greedy Algorithm" and Why is it So Dangerous?

For anyone looking for a quick summary, he talks about how algorithms are binning/homogenizing people into a narrowing number of categories by selecting for engagement along local maximums. Ensuring that everyone is fed the most easily obtainable engagement bait regardless of whether it truly caters to their individual interests. At least, that's what I got from it.

Motorcycle guy from North Vancouver, BC, talking about algorithms? Cool.

It's an interesting video in the sense that it seems like an honest attempt at just understanding the problem without really proposing a solution or call to action, which I appreciate. It briefly touches on two points that I thought were interesting:

• Algorithms help us solve a "short term" problem that is really a symptom of a larger problem. And unfortunately, the best "short term" solution gets us farther away from addressing the larger issue. Specifically, engagement algorithms help us "solve" the problems of being bored and wanting connection. But while it helps us pass time (and feel some level of connection to the creators of whatever content we consume), in the end we feel less fulfilled and more lonely. And the quick satisfaction of the algorithm ends up making it even harder to put the work in to accomplishing things that are actually meaningful and going out into the real world to form real connections.
• Engagement algorithms go beyond echo chambers into actually changing people. The issue of engagement algorithms only exposing you to amplified versions of things you already believe is something I remember reading about years ago. But this video points out that you can actually end up adopting entirely new interests and ideologies just because people who are similar to you engage with those things. So in a way, these algorithms can end up creating entirely new "communities" of people who are identified, not by what they really care about or believe, but by what common topics are most engaging to the community. Which is crazy because that effectively amounts to a group of addicts bonding over the substance that they are addicted to, but thinking of it as an identity rather than a problem.

A surprisingly thought-provoking video from one of my favorite motorcycle channels.