Revealing Algorithmic Rankers
I&#x27;ve been thinking all the recent hostility towards algorithms - including ProPublica&#x27;s deliberate lies about them which are cited by this very article (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chrisstucchio.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2016&#x2F;propublica_is_lying.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chrisstucchio.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2016&#x2F;propublica_is_lying....</a>) - and what might be motivating it.<p>I have the following theory. Consider the proposition of formalism - the idea that the stated public rules must, in fact, drive the expression of political power. It&#x27;s pretty clear that we don&#x27;t live in a world governed by formalism. As one example, intimately related to many of the critiques of algorithmic decisionmaking, we claim to favor individual fairness (the proposition that individuals should be judged on their own individual merits) yet in practice we push for equality of outcomes (the proposition that processes should make decisions that do not vary across certain reference classes).<p>However, algorithmic decisionmaking <i>actually implements formalism</i>. If you tell an algorithm to predict which student is most likely to graduate college, or which loan applicant is most likely to repay, the algorithm will do exactly that to the best of it&#x27;s ability given the available data.<p>In many cases, the algorithm will even correct bias in it&#x27;s inputs: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chrisstucchio.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2016&#x2F;alien_intelligences_and_discriminatory_algorithms.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chrisstucchio.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2016&#x2F;alien_intelligences_...</a><p>But the thing is, the formalist output of algorithms is not necessarily in agreement with what political power <i>actually</i> does in the real world. For example, political power in the world strives to have proportional representation of different racial groups in college, yet algorithms aiming to predict grades&#x2F;graduation probabilities would actively penalize blacks (who underperform relative to what a race-neutral model predicts).<p>As such, algorithms are a huge threat to existing power structures, because they both implement formalism and they also reveal the lies behind our existing stated principles.<p>I&#x27;d love to hear what others think about this theory.