In the integrated development of “new form of human advancement + digital civilization,” algorithms, as an important intelligent technology and a new media technology, are deeply embedded in daily life and social structure through platform media, forming a unique algorithmic cultural environment.

Healthy algorithmic ecosystem

Algorithmic culture is formed in the process of popularizing computable logic across society. It is the product of a digital civilization evolving to the intelligent stage. Its core lies in the decision-making by computing. Algorithmic culture has given new connotations and characteristics to the new form of human advancement, and it has played a unique role in the evolution of human society toward a higher stage. However, if computational rationality inherent to algorithmic culture is allowed to expand infinitely, a number of risks may emerge, potentially impacting the development of a new form of human advancement.

In the future, it will be necessary to leverage the advantages of China’s mainstream cultural system to effectively guide the emerging algorithmic culture. From a historical perspective, the evolution of civilization is the accumulation and breakthrough of culture. Algorithmic culture is characterized by its uncertainty. Rectifying algorithm rules, aligning algorithms toward goodness, empowering national governance with algorithms, and enabling the people to share the benefits of a digital civilization are important directions for the construction of algorithmic culture.

The aim of algorithmic culture cultivation is to leverage the subjective role of humans in the process of building a digital civilization. To alleviate the harm of technological rationality, intelligent media literacy and algorithm literacy should be popularized throughout society.

In-depth research should be conducted on human-machine ethics and appropriate human-machine relationship mechanisms should be established. Programmers and software engineers should be legally accountable for the consequences of algorithms, as their ethical and legal awareness directly affects the values and direction of algorithmic decision-making. The popularization of ethical cultivation and legal awareness among programmers and decision-makers in the field of algorithms must be high on the agenda. Related to this, it is also necessary to analyze the language of political and big data research, examine how ethical issues are reflected in algorithmic proxies, and how personalized dissemination of big data decisions reflects political biases.

Individuals’ “anti-algorithmic” practice should be vigorously advocated for to achieve a slow-paced life. An “anti-algorithm” practice focuses more on the individual’s subtle experience process, emphasizing the individual’s reflections after immersion in the experience, in order to maintain a distance from the evaluation system and order set by the algorithm.

Practicing slow-paced living does not necessarily mean reducing the speed of technology, rather it implies that people should make their time spent with technology more productive.

New form of human advancement

Algorithmic culture is the computable transformation of culture. The information reorganization, knowledge recreation, relationship restructuring, mechanism transformation, and social reconnection under the computational logic provide a broad practical basis for research on algorithmic culture. Meanwhile, algorithm technology provides us with infinite possibilities, and we need to have enough wisdom to apply it properly to achieve a harmonious coexistence of cultural development and civilizational progression. From this perspective, the main theme of reflecting on the relationship between humans and algorithms in the field of humanities and social sciences is not deconstruction but construction. It should go beyond the binary opposition between subject and object. A harmonious symbiotic relationship between humans and algorithms should be formed.

The knowledge system and knowledge production system in the algorithmic era have undergone dramatic changes. To address this challenge, it is necessary to coordinate the comprehensive forces of rationality, morality, humanities, law, and institutions, provide support for a digital civilization with advanced sci-tech culture, and ensure the sustainability of the construction of the new form of human advancement.

Quan Yan is a professor from the School of Journalism and Communication at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.