Algorithms, Social Rejection, and Public Administrations in the Current World

Abstract

In 2016 the term 4th Industrial Revolution was coined to define a new era in history based on commercial and industrial activity connected through the internet. Connections to the network and the internet of things facilitate that activity and processes can be stored, generating large volumes of data. Algorithms can analyze and process this data to create new added value. Algorithms already control many basic sectors of the economy and society. Although with some initial rejection, the users have assumed as normal that the algorithms set the prices of supply and demand in the provision of goods and services or that they make investment proposals in financial markets. This new way of acting has created the circular economy, but also a new economic model based on very high amounts of data that comes under the name surveillance capitalism. An economic model based on virtuality, with data as raw materials and driven by algorithms, generates new challenges also in security.