• Tiresia@slrpnk.net
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    3 days ago

    Algorithm means Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. His name was transliterated into Latin as Algoritmi and from there into English as Algorithm.

    Using ‘algorithm’ to refer to anything other than the person is linguistic drift and therefore utterly unacceptable. Even if you’re “pulling an Algorithm” by relying on his mathematical work, then you’re pulling an Algorithm every time you use the number zero. Using “(pulling an) Algorithm” to refer only to a structured set of mathematically precise instructions is just so ignorant.

    Anyway, what were you saying about people being dumb for using “algorithm” in a different sense than how it was used previously?

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      Haha yes all words change meaning. You’re so smart for figuring that out.

      There’s a difference between the two changes though. Most notably the first one doesn’t conflict with the name, whereas this new usage which only makes sense within the context of corporate-made social media from the last 15 years.

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 days ago

      “Algorithm” is a term from computer science that doesn’t inherently have anything to do with social media or content recommendations. Those things are examples of algorithms, but far from the only ones.