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[-] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day 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?

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour 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 3 points 1 day 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.

[-] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 3 points 10 hours ago

“Algorithm” is a term from computer science

That is an example application of Algorithm's work, but far from the only one. Algorithm doesn't inherently have to do with information theory or programming languages.

Linguistic drift comes for us all. "Eventually everyone who hates this thing is going to be dead, and the ones that use it are going to be in control".

this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2026
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