Algorithmic narrativity: Literary experiments that drive technology

This paper extends Raymond Williams’ insights on technology and society by asserting that not only scientific, social, and economic conditions but also aesthetic factors are crucial for technological adoption. The concept of ‘algorithmic narrativity’ is introduced to describe the combination of the human ability to understand experience through narrative with the power of the computer to process and generate data. Using examples ranging from the exhibition of John Clark's Latin Verse Machine in 1845 through generative poetry in the early 1950s to today's generative AI, the authors argue that aesthetic innovation precedes and is necessary to technological advances.