algorithm
algorithm
English from Arabic/Persian
“A Persian mathematician's name became the invisible force shaping your life.”
In 9th-century Baghdad, during the Islamic Golden Age, a Persian scholar named Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī wrote a book on mathematics that would shape the world.
Al-Khwārizmī—"the one from Khwarezm," a region in modern Uzbekistan—introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and algebra to the Islamic world and, eventually, to Europe. His name was Latinized as Algoritmi.
When medieval European scholars translated his works, they used algorismus to describe his methods of calculation. The word evolved: algorism → algorithm—a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem.
For centuries, algorithm was a technical term known only to mathematicians. Then came computers. Then came the internet. Now algorithms decide what you see, what you buy, who you date, whether you get a loan.
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Today
Al-Khwārizmī couldn't have imagined that his name would become a word muttered with suspicion by billions—"the algorithm is hiding this," "the algorithm is pushing that."
His legacy is strange: a name that became a neutral tool that became an opaque power. When we talk about algorithms, we're talking about the man from Khwarezm, whether we know it or not.
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