Algorithms

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  • Homo Deus –– Yuval Harari
    • " '[[Algorithms]]' are arguably the single most 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 and reach decisions. An algorithm isn't a particular calculation, but the method followed when making that calculation."
      • These algorithms undergo constant quality control by natural selection. Only animals that calculate probabilities correctly leave offspring behind.
  • Homo Deus –– Yuval Harari
    • The new technologies of the twenty-first century may thus reverse the humanist revolution, stripping humans of their authority, and empowering non-human [[Algorithms]] instead.
  • Highlights from Homo Deus
    • According to the life sciences, art is not the product of some enchanted spirit or metaphysical soul, but rather of organic [[Algorithms]] recognizing mathematical patterns. If so, there is no reason why non-organic algorithms couldn't master it.
      • The crucial problem isn't creating jobs, but creating jobs that humans can perform better than algorithms.
  • Highlights from Homo Deus
    • Scholars in the life sciences should ask themselves if we miss anything by equating everything to data-processing and decision making. Is there perhaps something in the universe that cannot be reduced to data? Suppose non-conscious algorithms could eventually outperform conscious intelligence in all known data processing tasks? What, if anything, would be lost by replacing conscious intelligence with superior non-conscious [[Algorithms]]?
  • Sum: Forty Tales From The Afterlives –– David Eagleman