The Social Contract aka The Facebook Movie and algorithms

I went to see the movie The Social Contract Friday night and was pleasantly surprised. Being that I am not a user of Facebook, the phenomenon of this social networking site has me as an outsider. I look objectively at the story of the founding of  Facebook and am quite appalled at how greed can change even the most awkward geek with limited social skills into a cutthroat guy who is willing to screw his only friends. Now granted, there is an enormous amount of money at play here, and I would have wanted to be an initial investor so I could be a millionaire now but alas I was not and that chance is past.

The movie itself, aside from the subject matter, was well written, well directed, and well acted. Jesse Eisenberg was a convincing Mark Zuckerberg and I was especially surprised at Justin Timberlake's performance as Sean Parker. Timberlake's portrayal of the evil protagonist in the movie was believable and persuasive. The rest of the cast was ok but not particularly memorable. I was amazed that the actors who played the Winklevoss twins were not twins in real life. The camera angles fool the eye and until you look very carefully, they look identical. All in all, I was glad I went to a movie that I wouldn't otherwise go to, and the people I dragged were pleasantly surprised as well.

What struck me as interesting was that at our last class we spoke about algorithms and how they influence our virtual worlds. Facebook began as an algorithm, written on a Harvard dorm window and now influences millions who have no idea how hard it is to work on an actual farm to take care of their farm animals daily. Ironic, I think, and a bit amusing, to me. So the next time I receive another unwanted email from Target, Valore Books, Priceline or Enterprise, I will not take it personally that they want me to buy something, read a book, go on a trip or rent a car but will realize that some geek who wrote some undecipherable formula without knowing me or anything about me can find some obscure thing that I didn't even know I had an interest in to take my precious time to click and look. Amazing what technology can do!