Kevin Slavin navigates in the algoworld, the expanding space in our lives that’s determined and run by algorithms.

Why you should listen

Are you addicted to the dead-simple numbers game Drop 7 or Facebook’s Parking Wars? Blame Kevin Slavin and the game development company he co-founded in 2005, Area/Code, which makes clever game entertainments that enter the fabric of reality.

All this fun is powered by algorithms -- as, increasingly, is our daily life. From the Google algorithms to the algos that give you “recommendations” online to those that automatically play the stock markets (and sometimes crash them): we may not realize it, but we live in the algoworld.

He says: "The quickest way to find out what the boundaries of reality are is to figure where they break."

What others say

“Kevin Slavin sees a world where games shape life and life shapes games.” — O’Rielly Radar

Kevin Slavin’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Kevin Slavin

In Brief

A noninvasive method for deep brain stimulation, a new class of Emerging Explorers, and much more

June 16, 2017

As usual, the TED community has lots of news to share this week. Below, some highlights. Surface-level brain stimulation. The delivery of an electric current to the part of the brain involved in movement control, known as deep brain stimulation, is sometimes used to treat people with Parkinson’s disease, depression, epilepsy and obsessive compulsive disorder. […]

Continue reading