The 10 Algorithms That Dominate Our World

io9.com ^ | 5/22/2014 | George Dvorsky

[PapaNew]

Wacka Wacka.

[doc1019]

What the hell is an algorithm? Is this something I should fear, is it something that should be on the news? Please, oh please ...

[dfwgator]

What the hell is an algorithm?

Al Gore trying to play drums?

[Oratam]

. . . and Skynet becomes conscious when?

[taxcontrol]

The algorithm that rules the world, the one set that enables all the others mentioned in this article ... TCP/IP (spanning tree, OSPF, EIGRP, RIP, BGP, etc.)

[Usagi_yo]

Hmm, one would think ‘binary sort’ or ‘binary reduction’, perhaps even successive approximation would rank in the top 10.

[doc1019]

White men don’t have rhythm, can’t jump either.

[P.O.E.]

F = m * a

[OneWingedShark]

What the hell is an algorithm?

Simple layman-terms: It's a method for achieving/calculating/determining some result.

Dictionary definition:

algorithm
noun
a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps, eg: as for finding the greatest common divisor.

[OneWingedShark]

I’d agree; and besides these are more like applications of algorithms than algorithms themselves.

[Bobalu]

All of this technological magic has at its core the simple switch.

Zero or one, up or down, white or black, spin-left spin-right, yes or no...

Switches are gathered together to form a computing machine. It was first described by Alan Turing as his Universal Computing Machine in a paper he authored in his early twenties.

The first such machine was in fact the Manchester Baby and Turing wrote the programming manual for its later incarnation.

Turing was also the first proponent of RISC (reduced instruction set computer) which refers to the simplicity of machine instructions, not the number of instructions. He wondered why the Americans seemed to inclined to create very complex hardware instructions when only a few very simple ones would do the job better.

The amazing power of binary data and the simple high-speed electronic switch.

The Manchester Baby

[Myrddin]

The heuristic is the pragmatic cousin of the algorithm. It represents approaches to problem solving that work even when we can’t explain why. The algorithm expresses how to solve the problem explicitly because we do understand why and how to solve it.

[PieterCasparzen]

Oy, the pop algorithm du jour list.

I don’t have time to think about it, but this is a superficial list.

I notice DATA ENCRYPTION is NOT on the list.

Pop tarts.

[Myrddin]

I’ve been an avid skater at indoor rinks for much of my life. When artificial intelligence, computer vision and robotics can produce a roller skating robot that can continuously evaluate a safe path, never collide and never fall, I will concede that the state of the art has caught up to a basic human. We are a long way from that right now.

[Myrddin]

Item 4 included encryption

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I agree but the self driving car is moving closer to a reality all the time.

[glyptol]

How about race warfare + welfare = democrat vote. Don’t thank me thank LBJ

I can’t quote his comment on the matter because I don’t think that way.

[Smedley]

Moronic to anyone who actually knows anything about algorithms.

The Viterbi algorithm, block error decoding and optimal predictors are the centerpieces of communications and data storage

[ArcadeQuarters]

> An increasing number of police departments are utilizing a new technology known as predictive analysis

I can save you a lot of money on this one.