What is an Algorithm?

• In Event: Algorithms, Public Culture, and Platform Responsibility

Abstract

"Algorithm" entered the English language in the 13th century and was, until recently, a fairly obscure term, its usage confined mainly to mathematicians and engineers. But since 1960 its presence in English has increased more than tenfold (Google NGram Viewer, 2014), suggesting the word may now be tending toward conventionality. This is affirmed by news reports about algorithms and the roles they play in online activities ranging from stock trading to social networking, searching, shopping, and more.

But what is an algorithm? Computer scientist John MacCormick defines the word as “a precise recipe that specifies the exact sequence of steps required to solve a problem” (2012: 3). His definition squares with dominant contemporary usage, as demonstrated by dictionaries and other reference matter. "Algorithm" typically refers to a set of step-by-step procedures intended to formalize decision-making, procedures that are often translated into mathematical formulae and implemented computationally.

Inspired by the work of Raymond Williams—particularly his writings on keywords (1983), as well as his material on residual, dominant, and emergent culture (1977)—this essay argues that there is more at stake when one utters the word algorithm today. It is concerned with latencies of meaning that subsist and persist in contemporary usage as “traces without…an inventory” (Gramsci 1971: 324).

The piece proceeds by following the word "algorithm" back to Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, a polymath who lived and worked in 9th century Baghdad during the so-called “Golden Age” of Islam. Al-Khwārizmī is considered by many observers to have founded algebra, and to have introduced the West to Arabic numerals. His surname is also the source of the word, "algorithm." Focusing on significant details about Al-Khwārizmī’s origins and intellectual output, the essay illuminates seven main senses of the word "algorithm": a person; a place; a textual system; a number system; a code; a technology; and a moment of reckoning.

The essay concludes by reflecting on what this expanded semantics might tell us about the politics of contemporary algorithmic decision-making online, and also then about the platforms where so much of this decision-making transpires.

Author

• Ted Striphas, Indiana U