Algorithms, Decision Making, and the Human Outside the Code

Abstract

In this intervention, we discuss to what extent the term “decision” serves as an adequate terminology for what algorithms actually do. Although calculations of algorithms might be perceived as or be an important basis for a decision, we argue, that this terminology is not only misleading but also problematic. A calculation is not a decision, we claim, since a decision (implicitly) includes two important aspects: imaginaries about the future and a “fictional surplus” as well as the process of justification. Our proposal can be seen as an invitation to reflect but the role of “humans outside the code” (and not merely “in the loop”).