ALGORITHMS

I’ve been thinking about algorithms this week. They’re the processes that computers use to make decisions. Data flows in to an algorithm (what you’ve bought before, what you’ve liked, how often you’ve searched for a thing) and the algorithm uses pure logic to work out what it should do, and what it should recommend or show you.

Sometimes when I have a decision to make, I try to calculate it in a very basic algorithm: a matrix. Weighting gets given to my preferences, or my desired outcomes. Then I break down the options into rows. Simple calculations give each row a score, and then the matrix outputs to me what my most logical, best option actually is.

I’m a very simple computer then. And I’m quite aware that I might not be as free from emotion as I ought to be if I were to rely 100% on the matrix method. I’m also aware that when other people can’t see what inputs went in to the algorithm, or how the algorithm actually works, its output might look a little strange.

What’s also true is that this is a super-slow, laborious thing to do if you’re not actually a computer. Data doesn’t go streaming through my brain in nanosecond intervals like a torrent of ones and zeros. I’m very slow.

Which means some decisions have to be made on a sort of instinct - a feeling that, given what you know right now, the best course of action is definitely this path, if only to give yourself a bit more time to figure out what you ought to do next.

Here’s my theory: I think that even that is a sort of algorithm. There are rapid processes going on, faster than the speed of thought, constantly pushing us to take choices, based on the inputs of our observation and experience. Adrenaline flows, the brain says ‘fight or flight’ - the simplest algorithm of all, probably. A car accelerates towards you on the wrong side of the road: there is no time to make a matrix.

So, somewhere in between the quick-fire autonomic computer, and the ‘which house should I buy’ matrix algorithms, there are some medium-sized decisions it’s hard to know whether to calculate out or go with the gut and the hypothalamus. Data flows in (I ponder as though my brain is spinning like the Microsoft hourglass) and moments later, out comes a decision that feels right, though it might not necessarily be obvious why. It also might be true that others who haven’t seen the same inputs, or would perhaps question the weightings of your preferences, would question the decision, and that itself (and I wish it didn’t) could so easily feed back into the algorithm and become a factor too.

And that, my friends, is how I ended up staying at home this morning instead of going to church. Blame the computer.