Algorithms are all around us. You might not see or hear them, but they are present. They are there when we call for them and when we don’t, and they are always inside of us. Every time you move a muscle, bam, algorithm. You just moved your eye to read this, bam, muscle moved, bam, algorithm. In fact, everything is algorithms and algorithms are more than everything. Nothing is also an algorithm.
Trying to understand how all algorithms work is the meaning of life and more specifically the meaning of my life. Not all algorithms work in mysterious ways. The algorithm for life itself is: if breathing, then alive; else dead. There is also an algorithm that breaks problems down into smaller sub pieces that explains why we cut bananas into smaller sub pieces instead of trying to eat them whole.
Why should anyone care about algorithms? Let me answer that question with an algorithm because the answer to all of our questions is an algorithm. When I get lost, I ask myself, “What would an algorithm do?” Then I stand at the fork in the road, frozen, as it hits me that sometimes life gives you bananas and you forget to cut them down into smaller sub pieces and end up just eating the banana whole.
I’ve been grappling with my own relationship with algorithms my whole life and recently published an untitled ebook on this topic. Writing this ebook was very hard, but with the help and support of algorithms, I was able to do it. Thank you algorithms.
You see, everything is simultaneously the input and output of algorithms. I inputted most of my life into writing my ebook, and the output of that was zero in terms of readers but one in terms of self confidence.
In a way, algorithms are our supreme mother and father and we are their children. I sort of wish my algorithms had been a bit more nurturing, but it’s not like I’m traumatized or anything. Now that I found the self-love and self-hug algorithms, I don’t need my real parents anymore.
At the end of the day, I know there will always be many algorithms I don’t understand like the sex algorithm. But I think I’m getting closer to the answer. Spoiler alert, the answer to that will probably be an algorithm.
