Limits of Algorithms & Numerati

In this day and age of the algorithms, everyone including me is gaga over algorithms. However, algorithms have limits, especially in matters of inalienable rights such as healthcare, education, liberty and justice.

For instance, if algorithms are applied to increase healthcare insurance costs for select individuals/organizations based on sex, age, past use of health benefits, something has gone wrong. This is where ethics need to kick in to ensure that algorithms aren’t used to impinge on fundamental inalienable rights of individuals.

Also, if biometric algorithms are used to discriminate based on race, religion and my social networks, I believe that we will have moved from a civil society to a draconian soul-less society.