"In the Algorithm We Trust" By Ryan David Ginsberg

 

Review by Terrance McArthur

As soon as you are born, it is placed in your ear: a bean-shaped object, the Data Gathering Device. It sends out streams of 1s and 0s, monitoring vital signs, events, thoughts. It reminds, suggests, directs.

The Algorithm

In the Algorithm We Trust is Ryan David Ginsberg’s dystopian satire of a United States where life is controlled by The Algorithm. Experiences are planned, friendships and relationships are experiments that give 1s and 0s that help The Algorithm determine jobs, partner compatibility, parenting skills, leading to the Perfect Match, who would be met in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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After the Siege of Washington where the President was guillotined, the United States has been remade by Lamar T. Haddington, creator of Perfect Match and The Algorithm. Offshore, a Barrier Wall surrounds the country to keep out the Foreigners who want to destroy it. Cameras watch everywhere, even inside homes. Mechanical arms extend to wipe away tears, to remove things when The Algorithm decides an experiment is over. Drones fly in, bringing new things for new experiments. The goal is to create happy Patriots living perfect lives.

Zoos are now prisons for people who do not fit America’s new Algorithm: Foreigners, journalists, politicians who resisted Haddington’s rise. The Empire State Building is now a giant incinerator for burning books, magazines, documents—anything before the Siege of Washington. Anyone suggesting the Algorithm might lie ends up in the “zoo,” pelted with food, rocks, and garbage by laughing tourists, and forced to fight the others on exhibit.

The story follows Hugo Rodriguez from birth to his perfect adulthood, as dictated by The Algorithm—assigned pets, assigned Romantic Data Gathering Relationships, an assigned Parenting Experiment, all aiming toward Knoxville and the Perfect Match.

Some of it sounds peculiar. Some of it sounds disturbing. Some of it sounds familiar. Ginsburg has fabricated a nightmare world in the footsteps of 1984 and Brave New World. Headlines, conspiracy theories, and technology combine into something that could be, shouldn’t be, better not be. The more you read, the more it looks like a mirror.

The Algorithm is always right. Or is it?

You can click here to purchase this book.  

Terrance V. Mc Arthur is newly retired as a Librarian in Fresno County, California. He is also a storyteller, puppeteer, magician, and maker of pine needle baskets. On top of that he writes stories that range from rhymed children's tales to splatterpunk horror. He's an odd bird, but he's nice to have around.

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