Chats: an algorithm decides the order of the messages shown
Games: a lot of algorithms everywhere.
Ebooks: eg algorithms are used to decode the drm of you are using a Kindle.
We should use technical words in a technically correct way, or else public discourse becomes obscured and confused. Like what Discord did with the word “Server”, it’s not innocuous even when people are doing it by accident.
Language isn’t set in stone, and when people use the term “algorithm” when referring to the system in place that decides what content is put in front of them, people understand what they mean. No one gets this algorithm mixed up with the math/computer science term algorithm.
The discord one is slightly different, but I’d argue it isn’t that harmful, as Discord “servers” function effectively as a server from a user point of view. The only problem with this nomenclature is that it somewhat implies to a layperson that there is some form of privacy/security in place, which there isn’t.
That’s not what I wrote. It’s just that they were complaining about the wrong thing. Algorithms are not bad, just how they are sometimes used is bad. Most of the time they are applied in a good or neutral way.
Okay then let’s get rid of the phone, it was just an example either way.
Every program consists of algorithms, no matter where it is installed: in your phone, car or TV. In a street light, a digital thermometer or a smoke detector.
You wrote:
get rid of anything that’s an algorithm.
If we do that, no digital thing will work anymore. It’s not just social media. Or phones. It’s everything.
Everything that’s on your phone has an algorithm. It’s like saying I don’t eat things with chemicals in it.
Technically correct, but I think you know what the above user meant.
recommendation algorithm
though i reckon lemmy has one too, just a more transparent one
Group chats with Friends? Games? Ebooks? There might be algorithms associated with those somewhere, but you’d have to go digging for them.
Chats: an algorithm decides the order of the messages shown Games: a lot of algorithms everywhere. Ebooks: eg algorithms are used to decode the drm of you are using a Kindle.
You don’t need to dig very deep.
A pedant’s job is never done, huh?
We should use technical words in a technically correct way, or else public discourse becomes obscured and confused. Like what Discord did with the word “Server”, it’s not innocuous even when people are doing it by accident.
Language isn’t set in stone, and when people use the term “algorithm” when referring to the system in place that decides what content is put in front of them, people understand what they mean. No one gets this algorithm mixed up with the math/computer science term algorithm.
The discord one is slightly different, but I’d argue it isn’t that harmful, as Discord “servers” function effectively as a server from a user point of view. The only problem with this nomenclature is that it somewhat implies to a layperson that there is some form of privacy/security in place, which there isn’t.
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Ahh yes, the old “things are bad so we shouldn’t worry about making them any better” argument.
That’s not what I wrote. It’s just that they were complaining about the wrong thing. Algorithms are not bad, just how they are sometimes used is bad. Most of the time they are applied in a good or neutral way.
Well I didn’t write anything about phones, I was talking about social media echo-chambers, but you took that there.
Okay then let’s get rid of the phone, it was just an example either way. Every program consists of algorithms, no matter where it is installed: in your phone, car or TV. In a street light, a digital thermometer or a smoke detector.
You wrote:
If we do that, no digital thing will work anymore. It’s not just social media. Or phones. It’s everything.
you get my point, yet you refuse to get my point, we have nothing left here to discuss