It’s taken almost another lifetime to bring his biological vision into scientific reality, but it’s turning out to be more than a neat explanation and some fancy equations.”Īlthough Turing’s algorithms have been useful in identifying how patterns emerge in nature, other correlations generated by algorithms have been more suspect. Today, the smartphone in your pocket is packed with computing technology that would have blown his mind. Back then it was capable of crunching a few numbers at a snail’s pace. “In the last years of Alan Turing’s life he saw his mathematical dream - a programmable electronic computer - sputter into existence from a temperamental collection of wires and tubes. Arney reports that scientists are still using his algorithms to discover patterns in nature. Fortunately, Turing’s impact on the world didn’t end with his suicide. Sadly, Turing took his own life two years after publishing his book. Back in 1952, Turing “published a set of equations that tried to explain the patterns we see in nature, from the dappled stripes adorning the back of a zebra to the whorled leaves on a plant stem, or even the complex tucking and folding that turns a ball of cells into an organism.” Turing became famous during the Second World War because he helped break the Enigma code. Their use in computers can be traced back to one of the giants in computational theory Alan Turing. As noted above, they are simply mathematical instructions. We shouldn’t blame our tools.”Īlgorithms are nothing new. As technology evolves, there will be mistakes, but it is important to remember they are just a tool. There is currently an awkward marriage between data and algorithms. It’s also about how models are being used to predict the future. The questions being raised about algorithms at the moment are not about algorithms per se, but about the way society is structured with regard to data use and data privacy.
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On the one hand, they are good because they free up our time and do mundane processes on our behalf. Panos Parpas, a lecturer in the department of computing at Imperial College London, told Hickman, “ are now integrated into our lives. Clearly, however, people with both good and bad intentions have used algorithms. Īs mathematical equations, algorithms are neither good nor evil. These mathematical creations determine what you see in your Facebook feed, what movies Netflix recommends to you, and what ads you see in your Gmail.”. Klint Finley reports, “Today’s internet is ruled by algorithms. Uses for machine learning include data mining and pattern recognition. Rather than follow only explicitly programmed instructions, some computer algorithms are designed to allow computers to learn on their own (i.e., facilitate machine learning). The only point that explanation gets wrong is that you have to tell a computer “exactly what you want it to do” step by step. The algorithm is the basic technique used to get the job done.” That’s where computer algorithms come in. When you are telling the computer what to do, you also get to choose how it’s going to do it. The computer then ‘executes’ the program, following each step mechanically, to accomplish the end goal. To write a computer program, you have to tell the computer, step by step, exactly what you want it to do.
“To make a computer do anything, you have to write a computer program. That’s because computers are playing increasingly important roles in so many aspects of our lives. So should we be more wary of their power?” It’s a bit hyperbolic to declare that algorithms rule the world but, I agree that their use is becoming more widespread. But more surprising is their widespread use in our everyday lives. For example, Leo Hickman ( writes, “The NSA revelations highlight the role sophisticated algorithms play in sifting through masses of data. Wikipedia states that an algorithm “is a step-by-step procedure for calculations.Īlgorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning.” Whether you are aware of it or not, algorithms are becoming a ubiquitous part of our lives.
That’s really all that algorithms are mathematical instructions. One of the reasons is that scientists have learned that computers can learn on their own if given a few simple instructions. “Algorithm” is a word that one hears used much more frequently than in the past.