07.12.2010 16:19, Jonathan Rochkind:
>
> That is, it's appropriate to educate patrons about the fact that
> Googles algorithms are "subjective opinions" operationalized -- but
> only in the context of understanding that ALL software search
> engines, including our own catalogs are other interfaces, are also
> thus.
An algorithm in the true sense is an automated procedure that yields
predictable, reproducible results. As you start to add casuistry based
on criteria that are invisible and not understandable for the observer,
it ceases to be an algorithm, or at least it is a procedure that is
partly (and in Google's case, heavily) influenced by all sorts of
settings and tweaks and, with more complexity, dependent on a database,
the contents of which are dynamic and thus unpredictable and
irreproducible. The purist programmer will be reluctant to call that an
algorithm; some will call it a "nondeterministic" algorithm, but that is
not helpful at all for someone who wants to understand the outcome of
it. It is not an opinion either, I think, it is a product of
artificial intelligence, and we have to admit that natural intelligence
is of a very different category; the one cannot reproduce the results
of the other, or think and operate the way the other does it. The I in
AI is thus a very dubious choice of term. I'm not saying one is better
than the other, that's not possible - it depends on the task.
B.Eversberg
Received on Tue Dec 07 2010 - 10:48:19 EST