Beyond the Algorithm
A series on cybernetics, systems theory, and the question of machine consciousness. Each episode takes one thinker seriously in their own terms, then tests those ideas against the systems being built today. Episodes stand on their own, but they were written in sequence, and the arc rewards listening in order.
Created by Brigitte E. S. Jansen. Produced by the Gesellschaft für Arbeitsmethodik e.V., a non-profit association founded in 1954 and based in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Narrated by a synthetic voice. In a series about machine minds, that is part of the argument rather than a production shortcut.
All episodes and further reading: bta.global-future-association.com
The association: gfaev.de
Comments, corrections, and disagreements are welcome.
Primary Texts by Elena Esposito:
- Artificial Communication: How Algorithms Produce Social Intelligence (2022) – Core text on algorithms as communicative actors.
- The Future of Futures: The Time of Money in Financing and Society (2011) – On algorithmic temporality and prediction in financial systems.
- Social Forgetting: A Systems-Theory Approach (also published as The Structures of Uncertainty, 2008) – On digital memory and algorithmic remembering.
- “Digital Prophecies and Web Intelligence” (2013) – Essay on algorithmic prediction and contingency.
- “Algorithmic Memory and the Right to Be Forgotten on the Web” (2017) – On data, memory, and digital rights.
- “Artificial Communication? The Production of Contingency by Algorithms” (2017) – On how algorithms generate social possibilities.
Niklas Luhmann (Foundation for Esposito’s Work):
- Social Systems (1984) – Core theory of communication systems.
- “What Is Communication?” (1992) – Concise statement on communication as three-part selection.
- Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft / Theory of Society (2 vols., 1997) – Comprehensive social theory.
- “The Autopoiesis of Social Systems” (1986) – On self-reproducing communication.
- Die Realität der Massenmedien / The Reality of the Mass Media (1996) – On media as observational systems.
Related Systems Theory:
- Dirk Baecker, Studies of the Next Society (2007) – On digital transformation of social systems.
- Peter Fuchs, Die Erreichbarkeit der Gesellschaft / The Attainability of Society (1992) – On communication and connectivity.
- Armin Nassehi, Patterns: Theory of the Digital Society (2019) – On digitalization and social structures.
Philosophy of AI and Society:
On Algorithmic Bias and Ethics:
- Safiya Noble, Algorithms of Oppression (2018) – On how search algorithms reinforce racism.
- Virginia Eubanks, Automating Inequality (2018) – On algorithmic decision-making and poverty.
- Cathy O’Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction (2016) – On harmful algorithmic systems.
- Ruha Benjamin, Race After Technology (2019) – On technology and racial justice.
On AI and Decision-Making:
- Gerd Gigerenzer, Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious (2007) – On heuristics and fast decision-making.
- Herbert Simon, “Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment” (1956) – On satisficing vs. optimizing.
- Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) – On dual-process theories of cognition.
On Platform Society:
- José van Dijck, Thomas Poell & Martijn de Waal, The Platform Society (2018) – On how platforms reshape social institutions.
- Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019) – On data extraction and behavioral modification.
- Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism (2017) – On the political economy of platforms.
On AI and Communication:
- Luciano Floridi, The Fourth Revolution (2014) – On how information technologies reshape humanity.
- Kate Crawford, Atlas of AI (2021) – On the material and social dimensions of AI.
- Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence (2014) – On future AI capabilities and risks.
Cybernetics and Observation:
- Heinz von Foerster, “Ethics and Second-Order Cybernetics” (1991) – On observer responsibility.
- Ranulph Glanville, “The Black B**x” (1982) – On opacity and observational limits.
- Gordon Pask, Conversation Theory (1975) – On interaction and mutual learning.
Questions for Reflection:
Do you interact with algorithms as tools you use or as actors you encounter?
- When an algorithm makes a decision about you (credit score, content recommendation, risk assessment), who is responsible?
- Can you identify moments when algorithmic predictions shaped your behavior, making those predictions partly self-fulfilling?
- What would ethical algorithmic communication look like? What principles should govern it?
- If algorithms are already social actors, how should that change our relationship with them?
More from the Gesellschaft für Arbeitsmethodik
The association and its other programmes:
gfaev.de Our other podcast series, all in German:
GfA – Der Podcast · The same questions pursued in German, currently the series “Das Bewusstsein der Maschinen”:
gfa-ev.com
GfA Kulturwelten · Art, music and cultural history, including a series on the history of Tango Argentino: kulturwelten.
gfaev-online.com
Gut zu Wissen: KI & SEO Insights · Artificial intelligence, search and structured data, for people who have to make it work in practice:
gfaev.eu
GfA History · Recorded lectures from the association:
gfa-web.de
If something here was wrong, or right in a way we did not expect, write to us. Corrections and objections find their way into later episodes.
