tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post5536788426813633245..comments2024-03-28T12:13:06.135-05:00Comments on Bayou Renaissance Man: Do algorithms rule the world?Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-51562108722839172692011-08-28T20:14:03.230-05:002011-08-28T20:14:03.230-05:00Judging by his LinkedIn profile, I'm not sure ...Judging by his LinkedIn profile, I'm not sure I'd call Kevin Slavin an "algorithm expert" in the same way as, say, <a href="http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/" rel="nofollow">David Eppstein</a>. Perhaps this is why that BBC excerpt made me roll my eyes so hard I sprained something. Either Slavin, the BBC, or both are engaging in some rather tiresome concern-trolling Luddism.<br /><br />It turns out that the "theory" branch of computing science has a wide variety of excellent tools for proving things about algorithms. (Algorithms, it should be noted, are deterministic enough that one can actually <em>prove</em> quite a bit about them, which to my mind makes them <em>far</em> more comfortingly predictable than, say, organic molecules.) If Slavin can't read algorithms, it's only because he hasn't bothered to learn. (Although in his defence learning to read algorithms generally involves a computing science, math, or engineering degree.)bluntobjecthttp://bluntobject.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com