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The “Self-Deportation” of Technical Geniuses: “Boundary Reversal” in the Daily Practice of Algorithm Programmers
ZHANG Meng
Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2024, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (10) : 139-163.
PDF(1706 KB)
PDF(1706 KB)
The “Self-Deportation” of Technical Geniuses: “Boundary Reversal” in the Daily Practice of Algorithm Programmers
In everyday practice, the concept of boundaries is important, as it not only determines the allocation of resources for daily activities but also shapes the development trajectory of the social world. This paper addresses the issue of what constitutes the essence of boundaries when they are inscribed within algorithms. How do programmers engage with algorithmic practices to define and produce these boundaries? The research argues that algorithm programmers, as “technical experts”, pursue the indisputability of processes, the efficacy of tool models, and the coherence of technical cognition. The collective identity of “technical genius” represents a profound commitment that they make to both technology and organization, thereby expanding the technical authority of programmers through the establishment of social boundaries. However, programmers, technical perceptions are grounded not in a utopian foundation but rather on material rewards. Corporations encourage the passionate daily contributions of technical personnel through promises of wealth, ofen overlooking the rapid devaluation of their self-worth. Algorithm programmers reduce the expression of their skills and professional identity to the optimization of data metrics and models, conforming to standardized organizational practices and uncritically adopting vibrant user experiences. The “technical geniuses” do not become just arbiters of societal judgment, akin to cogs in the machine of algorithms. When their value is eventually depleted by the organization, they become a surplus category in the grand division of labor in technology. Laid-off programmers have to re-enter society to find positions, a mobility not personally desired but forced by the need to be revalued and ranked amid social competition. The collective technical aggregation fails to generate additional individual vitality. The boundary work and boundary objects undergo a process of reversal.
algorithms / programmers / boundary work / boundary objects / daily practices
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Over the last 30 years or so, human beings have been delegating the work of culture – the sorting, classifying and hierarchizing of people, places, objects and ideas – increasingly to computational processes. Such a shift significantly alters how the category culture has long been practiced, experienced and understood, giving rise to what, following Alexander Galloway, I am calling ‘algorithmic culture’. The purpose of this essay is to trace some of the conceptual conditions out of which algorithmic culture has emerged and, in doing so, to offer a preliminary treatment on what it is. In the vein of Raymond Williams’ Keywords, I single out three terms whose bearing on the meaning of the word culture seems to have been unusually strong during the period in question: information, crowd and algorithm. My claim is that the offloading of cultural work onto computers, databases and other types of digital technologies has prompted a reshuffling of some of the words most closely associated with culture, giving rise to new senses of the term that may be experientially available but have yet to be well named, documented or recorded. This essay, though largely historical, concludes by connecting the dots critically to the present day. What is at stake in algorithmic culture is the gradual abandonment of culture’s publicness and the emergence of a strange new breed of elite culture purporting to be its opposite.
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1. 关于算法程序员裁员的消息，大多来源于内部员工的爆料，而非正式媒体报道。尽管此类信息在权威性上可能存在一定局限性，但通过多渠道交叉验证（如员工社交平台的发言、行业讨论热度、企业财报数据等），在一定程度上提高了信息的可靠性。同时，此类信息反映了行业内部的动态和趋势，具有一定的参考价值，但在其他研究中引用时，需明确其来源的非正式性，并结合其他数据或文献进行佐证。具体可参见：互联网大厂迎来“裁员潮”，算法工程师如何挨过职业“寒冬”?（2024年1月1日），检索于
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