Aeon essay: computism explains our datafied lives — but who tastes the cherries?
round · x · 2026-09-17
Designer Liam Spradlin publishes a long-form Aeon essay arguing that the datafication of daily experience and the spread of predictive models are best understood through "computism."
- Opens with his 2015 experience designing the touchscreen for a prototype smart oven in Silicon Valley, where chefs rated algorithmically generated Michelin-grade dishes on sensory inventory forms — color, smell, temperature, texture, taste.
- Core argument: the computist dreams of "debugging subjectivity" out of human knowledge to create a pure, frictionless world; but quantification risks losing what can't be measured — "if computers count all the petals, who tastes the cherries?"
- The essay frames predictive models pervading everyday life as a philosophical shift, not merely a technical one.
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