Algorithm

Written on 2021/04/02 07:95 (metric, UTC-4) for Consciousness Prints Blog

I just realized the creation of the website I'm working on for fun STATIONS: The Art of Public Transit will soon just be about following an algorithm: once I create the format for each type of page, it'll just be a matter of following the same formula to create a page for each public transit station. 

And this site too, there is some algorithmic aspects to it like the way I format the title, when I decide to start a new paragraph, the types of topics I write about (too some extent, these last two are very complex algorithms if algorithms at all).

I think everyone uses algorithms a lot daily life: they have schedules to manage their time, they use certain calculations to know what groceries to buy and how much, they may use algorithms to decide what to wear, or where to sit at lunch, or how to greet certain kinds of people they meet. There's calendar or lunar systems that are algorithms with certain dates to celebrate certain things, etc, etc. 

A lot of people are happy to just live within these algorithms, these calculated systems, to go through the motions and know what results to expect. I have more fun creating, and analyzing, challenging and changing the algorithms and systems, that's why I've studied things like computer science and sociology I think.

​But would we be better off without algorithms? 

Could we live without algorithms? 

Would this mean we would just follow our feelings and instincts like animals or do even animals live by algorithms evolutionarily built into their physiology and psychology? 

What would it mean to have no order, no structure, no ability to do calculations or predict anything?

Today has been one of those days where I've just sat in my room letting my curiosity and emotions take me wherever they want to on the internet. 

I've listened to three podcasts, one about the being a journalist in the Ontario Hockey League, one about how to handle the emotion of anger based on Jesus' teachings in the Bible, one talking about a book written about the nature of spirituality in life and what it means to be human. 

I've also spent time on Reddit and Wikipedia reading about social issues, politics, personality type systems, artificial intelligence, Elon Musk, etc.

I feel like this is a reflection of my life in the past year just following random things that interest me, moving different places, being in fascinating and meaningful conversations with all kinds of people and then never seeing them again: it's like every person, every place is a new world, a new life. 

Sometimes I wish there was just an algorithm I could follow or I could create that would be calculated to ensure I would always be living or on my way towards a fulfilling, meaningful, relationship-filled life. 

But would that be in principle, contradictory to what allows for this kind of life?