Go Home, Algorithm: You're Drunk (And Dumb as My Algebra Grade)

Hunting a little for some reading material in the professional vein, I entered some currently-owned titles I enjoyed into Amazon to see what kinds of similar works might be found. There are apparently gremlins about, as the "sponsored products related to this item" indeed contained sponsored products, but they were not in any way related to this item.

For example, every title I entered is apparently related to How to Be an Antiracist. After seeing it pop up three times in a row I tried a completely different kind of book and to my surprise found out it was also related to Ibram X. Kendi's bestseller. I could (and more or less do) chalk this up to Amazon honchos thinking that more people need to read Dr. Kendi's book. Which, fine. Their company, they get to express their point of view and they get to tell underlings to tweak the search algorithms to make that book show up in almost every search. They can even hide under the cover of the "sponsored product" label and say that they told you up front you'd be seeing stuff they think you need to see along with stuff you might be trying to find.

But as is often the case with complicated algorithms, alteration in one place has ripples throughout the system. In checking out John Cogan's The High Cost of Good Intentions, I found it is related to Thomas Quinn Miller's Cradle of the Gods - The Soulstone Prophecy Book 1.

Cogan's book is about how government programs designed to aid people in need have become bloated, inefficient cash blasters that seem to do everything for the people in need except help them.

Miller's book, according to the description:

In the world of Allwyn, a war has led to the downfall of humanity. A thousand years later, the survivors live on the fringes of a vast dwarven empire.

Ghile, one of the last humans, is preparing for his Rite of Attrition in a settlement known as the Cradle of the Gods. Meanwhile, Almoriz the Sorcerer and his apprentice Riff arrive in Ghile’s village for their annual visit.

Their meeting sets forth a series of events that changes Ghile's life forever. He is marked as the Stonechosen, and wields powers of the gods themselves.

But Ghile is not alone; others chosen to fulfill the prophecy are also traveling to the Cradle, seeking to destroy him. The time of the Stonechosen has come.

I have before in my life read such combos of post-apocalypse and fantasy (Hey, Terry Brooks! How you doing? Stephen King! How about that Dark Tower?) and may do so again, but I have never in my life heard of Thomas Quinn Miller. And unless one of the mystical powers of the gods themselves wielded by Ghile is a TANF card of unlimited supply, I'm not seeing the crossover.

Even more fun, among the algorithm which isn't supposed to include sponsored material (also known as material that an author or publisher paid Amazon to bump up a little) called "Books you may like" is Mary Trump's Joe Biden campaign contribution, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man. The idea that this is a book I may like is so completely wrong that we will need to have the universe repeat the Big Bang/Big Crunch cycle of collapse and rebirth at least three more times in order to contain the distance between it and the truth. I can't stand to read social media posts about the president, so why on earth would I inflict a book about him on me and become the first person to violate the Geneva Convention against myself?

Again, how Amazon runs is Amazon's business (and business has never been better, I'm sure). But I'll look forward to the day when Jeff Bezos figures enough people own Dr. Kendi's book or Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility and the algorithm can be reset to its far less glitchy previous state.