Saturday 25 September 2021

On Cows' Feet and the Algorithm.

I’m very curious to know why YouTube keeps offering me videos on the subject of diseased hooves in cattle. They do, you know, every night, accompanied by disgusting images of exploding pus, flesh being eaten away from the inside out, black rotting stuff which I can almost smell through the monitor, and sundry other retch-making conditions which come close to putting me off my nightly scotch.

I just don’t understand where their algorithms get the notion that I might be interested in the subject of Gruesome Diseases to Which Cows’ Feet Are Prey. I’m not aware of anything I have ever said in an email, a blog post or a YouTube comment – my three modes of communication on the internet – which might justify it.

Should I conclude that the dreaded algorithm is truly the biggest and most insidious pandemic striking at the heart of modern mankind? I truly think it might be, so when are we going to start designing a vaccine? And can I be the first in the queue? 

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