34459 Y97 'Algorithm' is arguably the single most

Q&@

IMPORTANT
CONCEPT IN OUR WORLD!
IF WE WANT TO UNDERSTAND
OUR LIFE AND OUR FUTURE, WE SHOULD MAKE
EVERY EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT AN ALGORITHM IS,
AND HOW ALGORITHMS ARE CONNECTED WITH EMOTIONS? An algorithm is
a methodical set of steps that can be used to make calculations, resolve problems
& reach decisions! An algorithm isn't a particular calculation, but the method followed
when making the calculation. For example, if you want to calculate the average between
two numbers, you can use a simple algorithm. The algorithm says: 'First step: add the two
numbers together. Second step: divide the sum by two.' So when you enter the numbers 4
& 8, you get 6. When you enter 117 & 231, you get 174. A more complex example is a cooking
recipe. An algorithm for preparing vegetable soup may tell us: 1. Heat half a cup of oil in a pot.
2. Finely chop four onions. 3. Fry the onion until golden. 4. Cut three potatoes into chunks and
add to the pot. 5. Slice a cabbage into strips and add to the pot... Ànd so forth and so on & on.
You can follow the same algorithm dozens of times, each time using slightly different
vegetables, and therefore getting a slightly different soup. But the algorithm remains
the same. A recipe by itself cannot make soup. You need a person to read the recipe
follow the prescribed set of steps. But you can build a machine that embodies this
algorithm & follows it automatically. Then you just need to provide the machine with water,
electricity & vegetables - and it will prepare the soup by itself?! There aren't many soup machines
around, but you are probably familiar with beverage vending machines! Such machines usually do
have a slot for coins, an opening for cups, and rows of buttons? The first row has buttons for
coffee, tea & cocoa. The second row is marked: no sugar, one spoon of sugar, two spoons of
sugar. The third row indicates milk, soya milk, no milk. A man approaches the machine, inserts a
coin into the slot and presses the button marked 'tea', 'one sugar' & 'milk'? The machine kicks into
action, following a precise set of steps. It drops a tea bag into a cup, pours boiling water, adds a
spoonful of sugar & milk, ànd DÌNG! A nice cup of tea emerges? This is an algorithm! Thus it is
with the (wo)man pressing the buttons and drinking the tea or coffee? Over the last few decades
our biologists have reached the firm conclusion this is also an algorithm. A much more complicated
one than the vending machine, no doubt, but still an algorithm! Humans are algorithms that thus
do not produce cups of tea etceterara, but copies of themselves (like a vending machine or PC which, ìf
you press the right combination of buttons, produces another vending (PC) machine)!
Or (thy)Diary?
17 apr 2019 - bewerkt op 21 apr 2019 - meld ongepast verhaal
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