The Algorithm

The NYTimes had a short piece on the algorithm that I thought might be of some interest. I think one of the terms that's going to be in play in our reading of autonomism is that of "general intellect" -- might we think of an algorithm as an example of "general intellect"? To do so would certainly go against the grain of the reading that Virno is running. OK, so what kind of distinction might we draw to separate algorithmic "knowledge" from general intellect? It certainly seems to fit more on the side of "fixed capital," and yet, of course, there retains a sense of immateriality. A tidbit for the article that gets to the notion of language and its relation to "general intellect":


"But the concept is not so different from what happens routinely during a Google search. The network of computers answering your query pays attention to which results you choose to read. You’re gathering data from the network while the network is gathering data about you. The result is a statistical accretion of what people — those beings who clack away at the keys — are looking for, a rough sense of what their language means."