This article is mainly about algorithms used by the government for surveillance and control. Bad stuff, of course.<p>But in general, I think algorithms are something to embrace rather than fear:<p>Even very simple algorithms reliably outperform experts by a large margin, in certain domains: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lesswrong.com&#x2F;lw&#x2F;3gv&#x2F;statistical_prediction_rules_outperform_expert&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lesswrong.com&#x2F;lw&#x2F;3gv&#x2F;statistical_prediction_rules_out...</a><p>Despite this, humans are heavily biased against algorithms. Even when we know they perform much better than humans. We also tend to vastly overestimate human performance: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lesswrong.com&#x2F;lw&#x2F;lsc&#x2F;link_algorithm_aversion&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lesswrong.com&#x2F;lw&#x2F;lsc&#x2F;link_algorithm_aversion&#x2F;</a><p>This has a lot of consequences. Humans are terribly biased, and often aren&#x27;t even aware of our biases. Not just stuff like race, but even people that are ugly are heavily discriminated against: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lesswrong.com&#x2F;lw&#x2F;lj&#x2F;the_halo_effect&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lesswrong.com&#x2F;lw&#x2F;lj&#x2F;the_halo_effect&#x2F;</a> We discriminate against people of different political parties even more than we do based on race: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;slatestarcodex.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;09&#x2F;30&#x2F;i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;slatestarcodex.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;09&#x2F;30&#x2F;i-can-tolerate-anything...</a> Or just random factors we can&#x27;t predict. Nothing about being judged by a human is &quot;fair&quot;.<p>And beyond fairness, they just give better predictions. Humans just aren&#x27;t very good at prediction, even when we think we are. And in some domains that&#x27;s extremely important, like in medicine. The first link referenced several places where statistical methods did better at diagnosis than doctors who specialized in it. Yet there has always been massive resistance to using algorithms in diagnosis.