Man vs. Objective Function: Lessons from Lieusaint

The article analyzes the case of the French town of Lieusaint, which struggled with an influx of traffic generated by the Waze app. The author uses this story to illustrate the fundamental conflict between techne (the technical proficiency of the algorithm) and phronesis (practical wisdom and the common good). The text argues that the technical correctness of an objective function does not guarantee social optimality, as AI systems often ignore external costs. The key conclusion is the thesis that true human agency in the era of algorithms does not lie in trying to better fit into the system, but in the ability to question and change the rules of the game themselves and the definitions of the problems that systems are meant to solve.