The name of this blog is a play on three words: algorithm, age, mage.
Mage is old Middle English for magician (one skilled in magic), and is an old name for the most advanced technologists of that era. The Hacker's Dictionary: A Guide to the world of Computer Wizards (G.L. Steele Jr., et al, Harper, 1983) defines magic as “something as yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain.” In a free interpretation, magic therefore refers to something algorithmic that is unexplained (unpublished), or that is too complicated (or too advanced) to explain to anyone who is not initiated into the relevant wizard/magician/technologist circle.
al·go·rithm
noun \ˈal-gə-ˌri-thəm\ :a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end, especially by a computerage
noun \ˈāj\ :a period in history or human progressmage
noun\ˈmāj\ :magicianMage is old Middle English for magician (one skilled in magic), and is an old name for the most advanced technologists of that era. The Hacker's Dictionary: A Guide to the world of Computer Wizards (G.L. Steele Jr., et al, Harper, 1983) defines magic as “something as yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain.” In a free interpretation, magic therefore refers to something algorithmic that is unexplained (unpublished), or that is too complicated (or too advanced) to explain to anyone who is not initiated into the relevant wizard/magician/technologist circle.
My favorite author, Arthur C. Clark, once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Therefore, since algorithms are a major ingredient of most modern technologies, Clark would no doubt have agreed that sufficiently advanced algorithms are themselves tantamount to magic. The obvious corollary is that since technologists create algorithms, any sufficiently advanced technologist must be a magician, or at least be indistinguishable from one, as far as a general audience is concerned.
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