Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Ted Striphas, "Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet" (Columbia UP, 2023)
Date: February 18, 2026
Host(s): Jeffrey Herlijimira (Universidad de Puerto Rico in Mayagüez), Co-host Alex Rivera
Guest: Ted Striphas, Chair of Media Studies at UC Boulder

Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Ted Striphas about his book, Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet. The discussion considers how language, culture, and computation have been historically intertwined—long before today's digital landscape. Hosts and guest explore the roots of algorithmic thinking in culture, the critical transition from human intermediaries to automated systems, the implications for agency and manipulation in the digital age, and what reclaiming agency might look like, especially for students in the Caribbean context.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Central Question: Why Culture & Computation Merge

• Ted Striphas’ Approach (07:13)
  • The book opens with a scene from Ralph Breaks the Internet, pondering how the technical term “algorithm” became so mainstream it appears in children's movies.
  • Striphas's core curiosity: "How did it ever make sense to use computational tools, algorithms, specifically to classify, sort, and prioritize cultural goods?" (07:31)
  • He argues this entanglement began in language and culture long before Silicon Valley’s rise.
  • Roots of the book are in cultural studies, inspired by thinkers like Raymond Williams.

2. The Human vs. Algorithmic Mediation of Culture

• The Displacement of Human Intermediaries (12:57)

  • Jeffrey remarks on how technologies (e.g., PowerPoint, AI) mediate and often distract under the guise of serving user interests, but more often to capture attention for monetization.
  • Ted addresses both the epistemological stakes (outsourcing human judgment to machines) and the labor/economic impacts (many cultural gatekeeper roles are being automated or eliminated).

• Dialogical Loss & Culture (12:57–19:38)

  • Striphas: “What happens when you give up on that idea of the engaged human dialogue? ... That dialogical part of culture, I think, is a lot of what we see slipping away in our time.” (15:38)
  • Alex: Even with conversational AI, “...in reality it doesn’t know because it doesn’t have any type of conscience. ...That is important that we have lost in the process.” (16:57)
  • Ted: "...culture should make people feel good, but it shouldn’t only make people feel good." (18:28)
    Points out the loss of agonism—productive struggle and debate—in algorithm-mediated culture.

3. Historical Perspective: Challenging Disciplinary Silos

• A Broader History of Computation (20:07)
  • Striphas resists a tech-centric history (e.g., only Turing, von Neumann) in favor of a wider perspective integrating the humanities and social sciences.
  • He draws inspiration from Raymond Williams' Culture and Society, seeing his own work as a companion volume for the algorithmic age.
  • “I try to trace the history of computation as it was influenced or framed by words and ideas brought ...through the humanities and the social sciences.” (21:15)

4. Language, “Scriptocentrism,” and Definitional Agency

• Jeffrey references the importance of “scriptocentrism”—the privileging of written or codified language in technoculture.

  • Ted: “The rudiments of algorithmic culture emerge in language, right, long before they are manifested in technology.” (32:29)
  • “...Words give us a certain type of imagination, right, an ability then to go on to build material worlds based on the kinds of understandings and accesses to reality that language opens up for us.” (32:53)

• Definitional Agency (32:29)

  • The book ends on the importance of reclaiming the ability to define terms and the world around us—“not only to rely on those kinds of authoritative sources which have a certain type of investment in defining words in particular ways.”

5. Orientation vs. Manipulation

• The debate over whether algorithms “orient” or “manipulate” (29:23–32:29)
  • Ted prefers “orient” because there’s always the possibility for resistance—people can “jump the turnstile” rather than comply.
  • Nevertheless, acknowledges that compliance is often easier due to designed friction, but sees agency in even small acts of resistance or redefinition.

6. Methodological Challenges and Discoveries

• Keyword Methodology & Its Limits (42:15)
  • The “keywords” approach inspired by Williams is print-centric and Anglophone—Striphas had to adapt it to study non-print, pre-dictionary cultures (e.g., 9th-century manuscript traditions).
  • Late-stage discovery: an unexpected early connection between "culture" and "algorithm" in the 1850s via Matthew Arnold (44:22).

7. Evolution of the Book & AI

• How Would a Sequel Look? (48:36)
  • The original book precedes Generative AI’s public debut (e.g., ChatGPT). A sequel would need to contend directly with these new forms.
  • “What is culture when human beings are not the only ones producing it?” (50:53)
  • Notes that generative AI is more improvisational and “creative” than step-by-step algorithms and that this shift raises deep questions about creativity and authorship.

8. Applied Takeaways for Puerto Rican & Caribbean Contexts

• Empowering Local Agency (52:56)
  • Encourages Puerto Rican students to reclaim authority over the language and concepts that structure their lived experience.
  • Suggests pushing beyond Anglocentric methodologies (such as Williams’ “keywords”) to develop comparative or “pluriversal” approaches—e.g., considering Puerto Rican Spanish or broader Caribbean frames.
  • Highlights Puerto Rico’s unique position as an island “between political worlds, a cultural crossroads”—ideally placed for experimenting with new conceptions and vocabularies.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“How did it ever make sense to use computational tools, algorithms, specifically to classify, sort, and prioritize cultural goods?”
—Ted Striphas (07:31)

“That dialogical part of culture, I think, is a lot of what we see slipping away in our time.”
—Ted Striphas (15:38)

“...Culture should make people feel good, but it shouldn’t only make people feel good...”
—Ted Striphas (18:28)

“Our world is much too complex for causes to be singularly attributable to just one field or one set of authors gathered around a single discipline.”
—Ted Striphas (20:47)

“Words give us a certain type of imagination, right, an ability then to go on to build material worlds based on the kinds of understandings and accesses to reality that language opens up for us.”
—Ted Striphas (32:53)

“Reclaim the idea that you, you are at liberty as a human being to define the terms and conditions of your life—literally and figuratively.”
—Ted Striphas (33:57)

“What is culture when human beings are not the only ones producing it?”
—Ted Striphas (50:53)

“I think these things would be really interesting for students in Mayaguez to start to think about and to explore...what would keywords look like not only in the Spanish language or even comparatively across, you know, say, Spanish and English, but more specifically, you know, Puerto Rican Spanish or with respect to a kind of broader Caribbean frame of reference.”
—Ted Striphas (54:41)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:12] Setting the Scene: The “Substitute Reality” of AI in daily life
• [07:13] Striphas on biography, the question behind the book
• [12:57] The loss of dialogic human culture and rise of algorithmic mediation
• [18:12] The limits of algorithmic dialogue and the loss of agonism in culture
• [20:07] Moving beyond tech-centric computation histories
• [24:28] How this book relates to earlier work (The Late Age of Print, Amazon algorithmic bias, ISBNS/UPCs)
• [29:23] Orientation vs. manipulation; social infrastructure and everyday resistance
• [32:29] Definitional agency and the power of reimagining through language
• [42:15] Unexpected discoveries: keyword methodology, historical linkages
• [48:36] What would a sequel address? AI, generative models, and cultural creativity
• [52:56] Implications and advice for students in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean

Episode Takeaways

• The pervasive entanglement of culture and computation is not new; it is rooted in the deep history and politics of language and mediation.
• Human agency persists—even in highly orchestrated algorithmic environments—through acts of redefinition, subversion, and new collective vocabularies.
• There's a need for long-term, collective strategies that include regulation, resistance, and creative reimagining of the technological future.
• Students and scholars in contexts like Puerto Rico can build on their unique positionality to develop alternative frameworks for understanding and shaping algorithmic culture—moving beyond Anglocentric or tech-determinist paradigms.

For those who wish to dive further, Ted Striphas’s book is recommended as a historical, interdisciplinary, and highly relevant read for anyone seeking to understand—and reclaim agency in—our algorithmic present.