The age of eligibility for a Covid vaccine was lowered from 65 to 50 in Ohio as of Thursday, so I began looking for an appointment to get my first jab. There is no centralized website that has all the choices. The state government site has links to places that offer the vaccine, but one must click the link to check on availability, and Thursday, none seemed to be available.
Friday, I clicked on the state site, and saw that a new site was opening, on Ohio State campus, which is convenient, as we live close to campus, so I clicked on that site. I got a list of times for the day that was offered, and chose one. I was sent to a new page, where I put in my personal information, then another page for my medical and insurance information. Then I clicked the Submit button, and was told the time was not available. I returned to the page listing times, and clicked on another, and found when I submitted my request that it was also not available. Although this site was on Ohio State campus, it was through Kroger Pharmacy. I went back to the Kroger Pharmacy site, and clicked for a listing of available sites near my ZIP code area, and the message came up saying there were no times available within 50 miles.
The site would clearly not reserve a time for me just because I clicked on it. I was not afforded opportunity to fill in the required information before seeing if I qualified. No, others were also clicking on the same time, and someone else completed the forms faster than I did. I clicked the main Kroger site for updated every few minutes, and mostly received notice that no times were available
When a new day opened, I clicked a time, and scrolled through the forms as fast as I could, and clicked Submit. I got confirmation of an appointment. I will be getting my first jab in a week, and my second three weeks later.
I still complain about the system. It is decentralized and tedious and awkward. I may have missed chances at other places, though nothing so convenient as the one I got. I wonder how many people get frustrated and give up. I don't know how a better system could be set up, but I wish one could.
My other recent observation of the algorithms was also not very impressive. I read books on my Kindle. I see ads for books, which I understand is part of the deal if you don't pay a premium to avoid the ads. I don't see much that I care to see. I rarely bother to check out the books I see advertised. But today I saw an ad for The Water Dancer. I am currently reading The Water Dancer. The algorithm is trying to sell me a second copy, it seems, as if that is likely to succeed. After all, one point of the technology of the written word is that it can be read more than once. Even if I wanted to read The Water Dancer over and over, I would only have to buy it once. How can an intelligent algorithm not make such a connection? Well, because algorithms don't have independent existence, so they operate according to their programming, which is limited by the information available to the programmer and the algorithm as it adapts, or at least that is how I envision the process.
I still don't see much to fear from the algorithms I'm aware of. It the possibility that the really good ones work in the dark that I wonder about.
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