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"Non-algorithmic"? It seems like the word algorithm is being bleached to the point of meaningless. I even saw a social media type service (I forget what) advert
by afandian 9y ago
"Non-algorithmic"? It seems like the word algorithm is being bleached to the point of meaningless. I even saw a social media type service (I forget what) advertise it's self as having "no algorithms".
Feels a bit like people being scared of "chemicals in their food".
I hope we don't get to the point where "algorithm" has only a narrow popular denotation and only negative connotation.
- Zhyl 9y agoI got annoyed at my father once for making a sarcastic comment about 'algorithms' in the sense you're describing here. So I sat him down at the table and cut 10 bits of string of different length. I then walked him through bubble sorting the bits of string. Then I said something like 'that is all an algorithm is. A set of rules or instructions that a computer can follow. The only trick the computer has is that it can do the instructions really quickly. There is no magic and they're not inherently oppressive.' I wasn't expecting it to work, but after that he never made another dig at 'algorithms'.