
The Business of Storytelling in the Age of the Algorithm - crunchiebones
https://lithub.com/rewriting-trauma-the-business-of-storytelling-in-the-age-of-the-algorithm/
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repsilat
Somewhat off-topic, but what is the lay definition of "algorithm" these days?
From the articles I'm reading I think it's something different to (or at least
much more specific than) the technical/CS definition.

People talking about algorithms in newspapers in the abstract are never
worried about the class of things that includes ways to tell if a number is
even, or which poker hand wins at the showdown. The term as they use it
obviously includes recommender systems (maybe only in concrete implementation,
though?), but I suspect it might also include navigation in Google Maps. It
probably includes chess-playing "AI", but I don't think it includes methods to
check that a chess move is legal.

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empath75
The pop culture definition of algorithm is basically any process by which a
computer makes a decision without human intervention.

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csin
I've seen guys in a poker room use it as a fancy way of saying their "decision
making strategy".

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munificent
That's an entirely valid use of the term. "Algorithm" comes from "al-
Khwarizmi", a Persian mathematician from 700-800s. "Euclid's algorithm" is
from 300 BC.

In its original conception, "algorithm" just referred to any series of steps
one could follow mechanically to reach a solution to a problem. Delegating
those mechanical steps to a computer (another word that used to refer to a
person!) came much later.

