The History Of “The Algorithm”
A History of Change, Integration, and Popularity
The algorithm is by many standards very young. It has only been around since the ’90s. Given that analytics is a discipline more than two and a half millennia old, algorithms are relatively new on the scene. Although it is only a few decades younger than the formula or equation.
Avid readers likely guessed that I did not mean the 1990’s. The equation, the formula, and even the algorithm date back to the Age of Reason. More specifically, to 17th century France where the Renaissance was now passe’ but no one was quite ready for political revolution… just yet. So the guillotine was left on mothballs and mathematics was all the rage!
The term algorithm has an odd etymology. It was evidently mistakenly based on the Greek arithmos meaning number. Algorithm itself, means “Arab system of calculation”. It also shares a heritage with Al Kwarizmi, who wrote Al Jabr, from which we get Algebra. This occurred nearly six centuries earlier, but good things take time.
On an entertaining tangent — Al Jabr was a book and not a person and in no way should be confused with the musician of that name. Who likewise should not be confused with El DeBarge, also a musician, who performed “Rhythm of the Night”.
As a final point of clarification, algorithms have nothing to do with Al Gore, but he does offer an easy way to remember how to spell them.
Early on, formulas and equations tended to be more about words than numbers. So applying “Arab calculation” using something that sounded like “Greek numbers” is actually quite descriptive. Etymology has a strong habit of coloring history. And so 9th century Arab math met 17th century European logic and the algorithm was born.
It would take two more centuries and a woman (of course), to really make something revolutionary of the algorithm (and analytics, for that matter). Ada Lovelace was the original engineer behind the first computer. Charles Babbage deserves some credit, too — but Ada was the one who made it work.
On another humorous aside — “Ada did the computer”. Unlike Linda, who I don’t believe is related, but was called Debbie when she “did Dallas” a little over a century later. Linda deserves some credit… for popularizing porn, long before Al Gore moved it to the internet. Ms Lovelace (meaning Ada) also had a highly “entertaining” love life, but that is a different story entirely…
Over the proceeding century, another unification of terms would occur. Code actually predated formula or equation in Europe. But only now, as the computer entered the scene, would it cross over. Lovelace likely did not consider herself a “coder” but new generations would. As all good things, it just took a little time.
Today, algorithms are everywhere on the internet. Just a decade ago, that was only true of porn. But it is one further unification that has made algorithms so robust.
The term model was first used in the 16th century, to mean “likeness made to scale; architect’s set of designs”. They were initially very physical things, but with the maturing of the information age, algorithms became more and more synonymous with statistical models. In many ways, they are just a very clean and streamlined version of them.
Models, code, formulas, equations, and algorithms — a menagerie of terms all came together to deliver our current fixation on “The Algorithm”. Scientifically speaking, algorithms come in many varieties like logical, statistical, heuristic, etc… but they are better known by their owners Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. I suppose it is a bit like an adult film model being known by their porn name… or not.
So remember, when it feels like the world is on your shoulders
and all of the madness has got you going crazy… wait, sorry. Too much El DeBarge. So remember, algorithms are nothing new. They are an integrations of concepts passed down across the centuries. And whatever name they go by, they are really just sets of rules and calculations.
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