The Post-Choice Society: Algorithmic Prediction and the Decentring of Choice

Abstract

Choice has played a key role in late-modern economy, society, culture and politics, but recently predictive algorithms are decentring choice and replacing many of its instantiations, offering an alternative way to match individuals with information, cultural goods, and consumer products – and to govern people. This article has two contributions: first, it contextualizes the decentring of choice within the history of capitalism, showing how it emerged once psychological and economics knowledge transformed the meaning of choice from an economic engine into a problem (‘friction’ or ‘overload’). Second, it explores the wider significance and cultural-cum-political implications of this transformation. Algorithmic ‘individuation without choice’ challenges the role of choice in neoliberal subjectification. Choice is increasingly marginalized in everyday practice while retaining its role in justification (as predictions are construed as what actors would have chosen). As the decentring of choice expands from social media and consumption towards governance, it may pose a threat to democracy.