THE HUMAN ALGORITHM – Reprogramming Biases for a More Human Digital World
Students step into the role of an algorithm, rank content, receive a hidden rule, and discover how bias changes what people see online.
Understand bias, question virality, reflect on fairness, and redesign digital systems more humanely.
Two 45-minute sessions transformed into one interactive experience for your website.
Rank the content as if you were the platform
Use your own judgment. There are no wrong answers. Just decide what becomes most visible and what gets buried.
Same platform. Different results.
Compare your ranking with others. Notice where your choices match and where they differ.
- Which kinds of posts did you place at the top most often?
- Did you reward emotion, information, danger, positivity, or entertainment?
- Which posts became almost invisible in your feed?
- Why can two people produce very different feeds from the same content?
Your secret algorithm rule
This new hidden rule changes what the system values. Re-rank the feed according to the rule and see how the output shifts.
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Reorder the same content again, but this time obey the hidden logic of the algorithm — even if it conflicts with your original values.
How did the algorithm change your world?
Compare your original ranking with the rule-driven ranking and reflect on what became more visible, hidden, or distorted.
- How do algorithms shape our daily lives?
- What ethical issues do current algorithms raise?
- Which voices or topics become amplified — and which disappear?
- How could we redesign algorithms in a more human-centred way?
You completed the activity and reflected on how algorithms can be redesigned more ethically.
Generate a simple activity certificate or save a PDF summary of the ranking and reflection.
