Sunday Algorithm

This Sunday we stayed home from church. Under the weather. 

After breakfast, I fired up my trusty computer and opened YouTube to see what the algorithm had for me today. And there it was, right in the top left corner, number one: the live stream from our church.

I clicked, and we watched the last half of the service. Not bad (the live stream experience I mean). Not as much fun as being there, and no coffee and cookies afterwards, but pretty good. 

Then I got thinking about the algorithm. Did the algorithm  know it was Sunday? Does it pop up the livestream at 11:00 a.m. every Sunday, but I've never been there to see it? Does it take it down at noon?

I know, I know. Nothing actually pops unless I'm there. Like a lonely tree in a forest, not making a sound. Like Schrödinger's miserable cat, waiting to find out if it's alive or not. 

Unlike some of my paranoid friends, I'm okay with the algorithm. It's annoying sometimes, like when I watch a post about how to put a washer in my tap, and ten more pop up. But if I listen to the Brahms violin concerto, it will offer other violin concertos. Watch  one banjo act and there will be lots of banjos. That's okay with me.

But top left on Sunday between 11:00 and noon? That algorithm is getting pretty smart.