When Algorithms Become Our Oracles

On the future—and the human need to know

We have always wanted to know what is coming.

Not only out of curiosity.
But out of unease.
Out of responsibility.

In ancient times, people turned to oracles. They asked their questions and received answers—often enigmatic, open, unsettling. And yet, those answers mattered. Not because they offered certainty, but because they offered direction.

Today, we no longer turn to oracles.

We turn to algorithms.

An ancient longing in a new form

In Prophecy, this long movement is traced: from prophecy to prediction, from divine voices to data-driven models.

It is tempting to see this as progress.
From superstition to science.
From uncertainty to control.

But something essential remains unchanged.

We still want to know.
We still seek to reduce uncertainty.
We still want to act wisely.

What is new is not the longing.
What is new is the belief that the future can be calculated.

When the world becomes calculable

Here, we need to pause.

Because this is not only about technology.
It is about how the world appears to us.

Martin Heidegger warned of a mode of understanding in which everything comes to stand before us as something to be measured, predicted, and controlled. When this happens, the change is not only external—it is existential.

The future becomes an object.
The human being becomes a variable.
Life becomes a calculation.

And what is at risk is not first of all truth,
but presence.

Understanding is not computation

Hans-Georg Gadamer offers a different language.

Understanding is not something we compute.
It is something that happens in encounter.

In conversation.
In experience.
In the unpredictable.

An algorithm can detect patterns in the past.
But it cannot enter into dialogue.

It cannot hesitate.
It cannot be moved.

And perhaps this is precisely what we need when we turn toward the future.

The choice cannot be delegated

Søren Kierkegaard takes us further still.

The human being is not primarily one who knows.
It is one who must choose.

And this choice cannot be delegated.

Not to experts.
Not to systems.
Not to algorithms.

For the moment we do, we lose something essential—
our relation to ourselves.

When predictions shape reality

Predictions are not neutral.

They do not merely describe the future.
They help to create it.

We recognize this from practice:

A child who is seen as “difficult” is often treated accordingly.
And over time… becomes what was seen.

Not because it was true from the beginning,
but because it became true in the relationship.

In this way, predictions act upon the world they seek to describe.

So do algorithms.

Practical philosophy—here and now

This does not mean we should turn away from technology.

But it does mean we must remain attentive.

What do we hand over to systems?
What must we continue to carry ourselves?

Here, Aristotle’s notion of phronesis—practical wisdom—becomes decisive.

It cannot be automated.

It arises in the situation.
In judgment.
In the encounter with another human being.

It requires experience.
Presence.
Courage.

A question

We have replaced the oracles.

But not our longing for answers.

The question is not whether algorithms are right or wrong.

The question is:

What happens to us when we begin to believe
that the future can be calculated?

Closing

Practical philosophy does not begin where answers are given.

It begins where we dare to remain open.

Where not everything can be predicted.
Where not everything can be controlled.

And still…

we must choose.

References

Aristotle. (2004). Nicomachean ethics (R. Crisp, Trans.). Cambridge University Press.

Drezner, D. W. (2024). Prophecy: Why we keep using flawed predictions. Princeton University Press.

Gadamer, H.-G. (2004). Truth and method (2nd rev. ed.). Continuum.

Heidegger, M. (1977). The question concerning technology. In The question concerning technology and other essays. Harper & Row.

Kierkegaard, S. (1980). The concept of anxiety. Princeton University Press.

Perhaps this is the truth:

We do not truly seek to know the future.

We seek to live with it.

The text is written after reading Drezner, D. W. (2024). Prophecy: Why we keep using flawed predictions. Princeton University Press., and written in a conversation with OpenAI/ChatGPT, which also made the illustration.