Back in the 1700s, ruthless algorithms had a different name. They called them Rationalism—and the whole Western world was under the sway of the Age of Reason. But like today’s algorithms, the new systems of the Rationalists attempted to replace human wisdom and experience with intrusive and inflexible operating rules.
It didn’t work.
“This rationalistic philosophy, which had been expected to solve all the problems, had failed to rescue society from either despotism and poverty,” explains Edmund Wilson in his masterful study To the Finland Station.
“The mechanical inventions of which it had been expected that they would vastly improve the lot of humanity were obviously making many people miserable,”
Ted Gioia > https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/we-really-are-entering-a-new-age
satoshian / Satoshian
npub1tv…rdxhq
2025-05-28 06:38:24
in reply to nevent1q…vgxp
Author Public Key
npub1tvunvf7n7eej73lpt2duxdx5vaxykjwt3zlrr0asl20sh3msu2uqzrdxhqPublished at
2025-05-28 06:38:24Event JSON
{
"id": "0f61914fd5dfa1bd26093a83e2653af765ac34474ea39ca5511e504c22fc0f00",
"pubkey": "5b393627d3f6732f47e15a9bc334d4674c4b49cb88be31bfb0fa9f0bc770e2b8",
"created_at": 1748414304,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"23bad71cf0457aa8c7e2fca1988cfe19fdc6c87ec1cb5384817ad991ea9ea422",
"",
"root"
],
[
"e",
"c44a1a9facfcf74558aa758d4b4b703e1fe673e4d7a6421127954f3a25a0d1c9",
"",
"reply"
],
[
"p",
"97c70a44366a6535c145b333f973ea86dfdc2d7a99da618c40c64705ad98e322"
],
[
"p",
"c230edd34ca5c8318bf4592ac056cde37519d395c0904c37ea1c650b8ad4a712"
],
[
"p",
"a96a35a224402b8075c4da20f0477896afcc3395b6fad63e30a648a8222a6a69"
],
[
"p",
"dd664d5e4016433a8cd69f005ae1480804351789b59de5af06276de65633d319"
],
[
"r",
"https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/we-really-are-entering-a-new-age"
]
],
"content": "Back in the 1700s, ruthless algorithms had a different name. They called them Rationalism—and the whole Western world was under the sway of the Age of Reason. But like today’s algorithms, the new systems of the Rationalists attempted to replace human wisdom and experience with intrusive and inflexible operating rules.\n\nIt didn’t work.\n\n“This rationalistic philosophy, which had been expected to solve all the problems, had failed to rescue society from either despotism and poverty,” explains Edmund Wilson in his masterful study To the Finland Station.\n\n“The mechanical inventions of which it had been expected that they would vastly improve the lot of humanity were obviously making many people miserable,” \n\nTed Gioia \u003e https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/we-really-are-entering-a-new-age",
"sig": "2116162ae42c6d9e02d2733a3a30c8af87a92379a92d9825d567bcf71fb5b633c699cfd9f2e2d0054e33cb0e498f306a6079a7691a2e91cbaa55b42656a10b1c"
}