Over many centuries the central Asian state of Khwarezm gifted the world remarkable advances in the arts and sciences, one of which still bears its name today. Mohammed al-Khwarizmi (Mohammed from Khwarezm) was a mathematician working in the Court of Baghdad in the 9th century. The name al-Khwarizmi or algorithm was given to his system for solving equations, and soon became widely used in English, even finding a place in the works of Chaucer. In time the word came to be used to cover mathematical problem solving in general. Now, with even the simplest device able to crunch huge amounts of data, algorithms drive decisions in all aspects of our daily lives.
In 2012 the Target Corporation demonstrated the power of algorithms in a startling way. Its software tracks purchases to predict spending habits and choose suitably attractive discount coupons to send customers. It seemed to have gone awry when a teenage girl was sent coupons for nappies, much to the anger of her father, who made an official complaint. But a little later the New York Times reported that the father had phoned the company to apologise. “It turns out,” he said, “there have been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of.” He was going to be a grandfather, and an algorithm knew before he did.
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