There is a kind of Algorithmic Break, or Algorithmic Turn in the cultures of developed nations. It is most evident and visible for those born in the 1050s and 1960s, and is signaled by the VCRs flashing 12:00, perpetually, in the homes of a consuming public. On one side of the break was a set of people who could not recognize how difficult it would be, for the uninitiated, to grok – to understand – the performative logic of a toggled human-to-computer interface, much less the ritualized gestures needed to set the VCR clock to the correct local time. All this as a necessary pre-condition to program the device to capture a show that aired at time inconvenient to the viewer. On the other side of the break were a majority of citizens who were puzzled and frustrated by the alien demands of what should have been a very simple and familiar task, that of setting a clock. This majority may not have seen – or enjoyed – the abstract logic of geometric proofs in their schools. They may not have seen or mastered the multi-stepped instructions needed to set the new-fangled digital watches that were all the rage. This majority was certainly not exposed to computer programming in schools…

[GUIs and contemporary DVRs have paved over this turn, but the foundation is unstable. This turn is largely invisible for a younger public (I think).]