The traditional view of an algorithm as a singular, bounded object is being challenged by a more complex reality: the algorithm as a multiple.
Recent ethnographic research into the development of a child welfare algorithm in Denmark illustrates that a technical system is never just one thing; instead, it exists as several distinct versions depending on the “world" it inhabits. This research illuminates the fact that that the engineering process is now no longer just about building a tool, but about heterogeneous engineering—assembling code, legal frameworks, and human procedures into co-existing realities.
The study identified three specific enactments of the same system: as a docile tool for caseworkers, as a data-connector within public infrastructure, and as a data processor for legal assessment. These algorithm-worlds often conflict or cascade; for instance, what works as an efficient data-connector may fail as a legally transparent processor.
This evolution suggests that technical excellence is no longer separable from the sociomaterial context. Thus, in academia, faculty must prepare students to navigate these processes of becoming, where an algorithm's agency is an effect of its human-machine configuration rather than an inherent trait. The shift moves the discipline toward a deliberative approach, where the designer's role is to manage the world-making power of their code, ensuring it remains viable across the diverse practices it will inevitably reshape.
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