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ALGORITHM

                                             March 28, 2023

There's a difference between an algorithm
that generates a functional system,
and the procedure that the system is
actually using.

In the modern world of what's often called
"AI", we have algorithms for generating
systems that work pretty well, but we don't
really know *how* they work.

So the older sense of an "algorithm" as a known
proceedure that you can write down and analyze
for correctness and comparative efficiency,
that's now long gone.

"The algorithm" is just what we call
whatever the computers are doing, even                 Blaming something on
though we don't know what it is.                       "the algorithm" is
                                                       fully as inane as the
We can get estimates of the reliability                mid-century tenedency
of what we now call "algorithms" only                  to blame things on
by looking at empirical data...                        "the computer" and
                                                       to use "computer
                        SYSTEM_ERROR_JAMES_VACCA       error" as an excuse.

                        INCOMPLETE_GOEDEL

                        GRACE_MACHINES
                                             MECHANIZED_DARWIN


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