Algorithms in our lives

I think this idea can be really frightening to people: What if the algorithms are out of control and start to ruin our lives!? (like some sort of horror film). I don't feel the same fear, mostly because people can always rewrite the algorithm (which , by the way, are really cool). While algorithms can potentially be a bad thing, as we read about in the instance of facebook, mistakes can easily be fixed once they are brought to light and that gives a venue for more invention and ingenuity. These things can potentially be something we rely on as much as weathermen, something that could be considered voodoo or "magic" that is actually just effective and good technology, just as good or infallible as the person who designs and tests it: as years go by and adjustments are made, things run smoother and work better.

And how cool is it that people have figured out how to gather effective news from the internet and actually have little avatars report it as if they were real reporters with facial expression? I think it is really innovative of programmers to figure something like that out. To me, it seems like it would be a terrible task that would be far too difficult to begin thinking about, though I was pretty terrible at even code writing in Java so I would be quite useless in actually inventing such a thing. I'm really impressed with the abilities people have with thinking these ideas up and implementing them effectively.

I'm curious to see how people feel about this issue, I imagine the class will be split on the issue, especially considering past opinions on tech. developments.