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Welcome back or welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled

algorithm. In mathematics and computer science an algorithm is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous

instructions typically used to solve a class of specific problems were to perform a computation.

Algorithms are used as specifications for performing calculations and

more advanced algorithms can use conditionals to divert the code execution through

various routes referred to as automated decision-making and deduce valid inferences

referred to as automated reasoning, achieving automation eventually.

Using human care achieving automation eventually.

Using human characteristics as descriptors of machines in metaphorical ways was already practiced by Alan Turing with terms such as memory, search, and stimulus.

In contrast, a heuristic is an approach to problem solving that may not be fully specified or may not guarantee

correct or optimal results, especially in problem domains where there is no well defined correct or optimal result.

For example, social media recommender systems rely on heuristics in such a way that, although widely characterized as algorithms in 21st century

popular media, cannot deliver correct results due to the nature of the problem.

As an effective method, an algorithm can be expressed within a finite amount of space and time

and in a well-defined formal language for calculating a function.

Starting from an initial state and initial input, perhaps empty,

the instructions describe a computation that when executed proceeds through a finite

number of well-defined successive states, eventually producing output and terminating at a final ending state.

The transition from one state to the next is not necessarily deterministic. Some algorithms, known as randomized algorithms, incorporate random input.

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