Tag: AnalogueSkills

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The algorithm works for Horizon One

The algorithm works for Horizon One.*

The bit of code, which decides what you see next on your device, is optimised to keep you looking at your screen, and staying on that platform. 

The owners of those platforms are the richest and most powerful people and organisations in the world. They have no interest in change, unless it is change which consolidates power. 

To make change we need different platforms: community groups, newsletters, meet-ups, face-to-face participation, and yes, new platforms powered by algorithms that are wired for hope, care and thriving. 

*Horizon One is a reference to the Three Horizons Model.

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Ultra-processed information

It’s super quick to absorb. 

Cheaply available. 

It bares little resemblance to its source. 

Its ingredients can come from anywhere. 

The growers are anonymous. 

Put together using processes you don’t understand.

It is optimised for what you crave rather than what you need.

And like other ultra-processed things:

It doesn’t quench your hunger.

It’s addictive. 

Easy to binge on.

But can be strangely unsatisfying. 

But we don’t just think with our heads — we think with our whole bodies. 

We process information by moving through the world, interacting with the environment, relating to other people, remembering through different neural centres in the body. Thinking has physical and emotional dimensions alongside the cognitive that are part of how we have evolved to make sense of the world.

When we are more active seekers of information rather than passive consumers:

  • We have to seek out what we need, creating relationships with sources, with people, with places. 
  • The process takes time, which gives us time to think.
  • We give the opportunity for our full range of bodily thinking circuits to participate. 
  • The inputs require chewing on, and this gives us time to discern what need.

The process is slower but the outcome is more nourishing.