INFLUENCER OF THE YEAR: ALGORITHM

Algorithms affect most parts of our lives today. With quantum computing set to be unleashed, the future looks loaded in favour of the abilities of instructions coded in machines

- HARISH BIJOOR

For the last 97 years, Time magazine has been anointing a 'person of the year' every year-end. As a child who grew up on a staple of Time and Newsweek, I would eagerly look forward to the year's last editions simply to see if I could guess who it would be. I succeeded only half the time. Nevertheless, thinking of all the persons I could list as possibilities and then weeding most of them out was a fun exercise. It gave me a kick.

It wasn't always called person of the year. In a less gender-sensitised era, it was called man of the year and, in some cases, woman of the year. It became the person of the year in the noughties. What started in 1927 with the coveted space given to aviator Charles Lindbergh, was given to Donald Trump for 2024. Time features a person, group, idea or object that, "for better or worse", has done the most to influence the events of the year.

I go back to the ways of my school days. I sit down and list my own person of the year for 2024. And it is not Donald Trump. It is not human at all. For me, it is the algorithm. Call it a he, she, them or it, the algorithm is the one biggest influencer of 2024. The algorithm has shaped the lives of billions, and continues to influence the future of everything.

Let me introduce you to this being. It is a lifeless form with a life all its own. The algorithm to me is a recipe. It is not a dish. It is a clever recipe that results in a good and tasty dish. It has many ingredients. It has many steps as well. It has a flow. It has both consistency and inconsistency loaded into it. It is what makes the world run today. All of life and living is governed by the algorithm.