Algorithms and common sense

Subject: Algorithms and common sense.

Cognitive bias
There is a claim the drinking coffee is good for you and will provide longevity. For coffee drinkers this is good news and for coffee producers it's especially good news. The basis of the claim is through the analysis of statistical evidence which over time has found people who drink coffee live longer. As an analysis of a group of people and the length of their lives compared to another group who don't drink coffee all well and good but it is so subjective to pin the result on coffee. People who drink coffee may come from a whole social group who have a lifestyle which not only drinks coffee but eats better food have more secure jobs, exercise more because they are aware of their well being and so on. We bias the statistic because the information presented is only partial and often it's in the best interests of a manufacturer to release these assumptions through the media.
The unintended consequences that coffee is a stimulant and mildly addictive and that any addictive habit is often harmful in the long run is but part of the problem.
Through another addiction, FaceBook, reveals a trend of the the need to be plugged into this social platform, often to the partial exclusion of the real life which is happening around you, especially in your family and the constant exposure to ideas and practices which are not necessarily your own, this exposure it could be argued is fundamentally destabilising and stressful.
The algorithm, another statistical tool used to predict the social habits of people is then simulated by what ever the gross average finding tells us and becomes a new  norm  which propels us into the Orwellian world of News Speak, a limited vocabulary design to limit the freedom of thought. The use of Twitter springs to mind and the use President of the United States, Trump uses this psychological tool to brainwash and perpetually keep off balance his electorate.
The use of AI and the reliance of artificial decision making, based on the algorithm, to bypass the human cognitive process with its ethical and moral checks and balances is a frightening development. Not only do you have the nightmare of the 'process' getting out of hand and machines over ruling humans but that in the lead up to this unhealthy reliance the institutions and business which control our lives often determine our individual future by evaluations carried out by non humans, i.e. Computers.
Statistics tell us little or nothing about the individual and its loss of individuality which most worries me.
It was largely the individual who carried mankind forward, who discovered the solution to man's needs, not committees or bureaucrats and certainly not algorithms.