We are increasingly living in a world where everything we do gets digitized, which means that those with access to this information (i.e., algorithms for the most part) can form a pretty accurate representation of what we believe in. Today, a significant portion of our communication occurs through digital channels that constantly gather data about ourselves. And to an ever increasing extent, we don’t even have to actively share our thoughts with others for our actions to be recorded and added to the sea of Big Data. We are now surrounded — at home, on the street, at work, in our hands, in our wrists, on our face — by machines with crisp artificial intelligence that are measuring every bit of what we do. Any belief we hold that materializes into the simplest of acts is being meticulously recorded without anything escaping the constant digitization of who we are.
You go to church, Google knows you believe in God — and which God specifically. You don’t even need to tell anyone about it; your location is enough for them to know. You take a happy picture at a beach, they know you believe beaches are fun. You buy an organic product, they know you believe organic is healthier. We can then say that through the digital crumbs that our behavior leaves along the way, algorithms are constructing a “selfie” of our beliefs. Beliefs are increasingly escaping our minds without us even noticing, and the implications are vast and becoming ever more clear. Here I want to draw attention to one particularly important consequence of digitization: the blurring of the line between private belief and public responsibilities.