Algorithms and computers help with everything. But what tangible purpose do they serve? The remarkable diversity of their uses derives from their universality.

Why is the notion of privacy at the core of the issues emerging in the age of algorithms?

We have certain expectations of the algorithms we use. For example, we would like them to be fair. These properties are essential for the peaceful coexistence of humans and algorithms, and for establishing a climate of trust in the community. They are even more critical when these algorithms exercise a certain power, such as when an algorithm makes the decision to approve or refuse a bank loan. What exactly are these expectations?

A scientific revolution does not only create new knowledge. It also generates new ways of thinking, new ways of asking questions, and new ways of answering them. Before the scientific revolution at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when questions were raised, for example, about whether or not blood circulated in the body, people looked for answers in the ancient texts. Aristotle and Galen taught that blood did not circulate in the body; therefore, the question had been answered. How did Aristotle and Galen know what they knew? That question was not posed. They were more knowledgeable than us, and that was sufficient.

Can an algorithm do harm? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is fairly predictable. Like any tool, an algorithm can be used for better or for worse. For example, if most people receive a pay stub every month produced by an algorithm, it would be very easy to modify the algorithm to add a bonus for certain employees depending on their nationality, skin color, gender, or political opinions. Such discrimination is morally reprehensible whether it is carried out by a human or an algorithm.

Where does the apparently paradoxical idea of the economy of free come from?

In many countries, governments are now conscious of the importance, in the age of algorithms, of computer science education. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Royal Society published a report in 2012, “Shutdown or Restart: The Way Forward for Computing in UK Schools,” recommending the introduction of computer science education in schools. At about the same time, Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s devastating critique attracted a lot of attention: “I was flabbergasted to learn that today computer science isn’t even taught as standard in UK school. Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it’s made.” As a result, the United Kingdom engaged in a complete reconstruction of its computer science educational system. In the United States, an “advanced placement” course called AP Computer Science was introduced in 1984 as a specialized high school subject. But the education system is quite fragmented and schools are not required to offer it. Barack Obama declared in 2016, “In the new economy, computer science isn’t an optional skill. It’s a basic skill, right along with the three R’s.” In 2018, only about 135,000 out of the 15 million high school students in the United States were enrolled in the course.

We have all had some experience with the digitization of administrative processes, such as filing taxes online. In certain communities, residents can also, for example, notify authorities of roads in need of repair through a website.

In order to understand what an algorithm is, let’s begin by taking a trip back a few millennia in the past to imagine one of our distant ancestors who had seen his late grandmother bake bread and then tries it himself. He doesn’t really know what to do. He hesitates, starts by boiling grains of wheat in water, then realizes it might be a bad idea. He does what we all do when confronted with a problem that we don’t know how to resolve: we think of solutions, we try them out, we feel our way, counting on a touch of serendipity until we succeed, or not.

In the age of algorithms, inventions follow each other in rapid succession. With each invention, there are many reasons to be amazed and, also, to be worried. These inventions make possible the better world we aspire to, as well as the nightmarish world we fear.

Distant points of light – quasars – show us the intervening universe in silhouette. The result is a map of the gas in and between galaxies, expanding with space.

Distant points of light – quasars – show us the intervening universe in silhouette. The result is a map of the gas in and between galaxies, expanding with space.

The universe is smooth on the largest scales, with roughly the same number of galaxies in every large cosmic neighbourhood. But the standard history of the universe won't allow any process to smooth out an initially smooth universe. An addition to the standard model, called cosmic inflation, aims to fill this void.

At night, the sky is dark. This familiar fact has some remarkable implications for the history and structure of the universe.