Algorithmische Kontingenz. Der Umgang mit Unsicherheit im Web

Abstract

The text deals with the transformations in the use and meaning of algorithms, i.e. in the translation of contingency into formalized procedures, up to the recent forms of digital information processing and of management of uncertainty. It is not a technical issue but a genuine social one – it concerns the management of the contingency of the social to obtain new sources of information and new information. Our society progressively tends to deal with contingency as a resource: uncertainty cannot be eliminated but it can be used.