{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","title":"If...Then Algorithmic Power and Politics","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"2017054909","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","id":"1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","uuid":"1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","title":"If...Then Algorithmic Power and Politics","normalized_title":"ifthenalgorithmicpowerandpolitics","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"2017054909","isbns":["2017054909","9780190493042","9780190493059"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":211,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/If...Then%20Algorithmic%20Power%20and%20Politics","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053/search"},"page":{"printed_page":22,"pdf_page":32,"physical_index":32,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"832ae83c618d046d227013394c3d39f8eb6c2e57cbdbd08d0efce7271946659e"},"chapter":"IF...THEN","content":"Designing an algorithm to perform a certain task implies a simplification of the problem at hand. From an engineering perspective, the specific operation of an algorithm depends largely on technical considerations, including eficiency, processing time, and reduction of memory load—but also on the elegance of the code writen (Fuller, 2008; Knuth, 1984).4 The operation of algorithms depends on a variety of other elements—most fundamentally, on data structures.5 Tellingly, Niklaus Wirth’s (1985) pioneering work on “structured programming” is entitled Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs. To be actually operational, algorithms work in tandem not only with data structures but also with a whole assemblage of elements, including data types, databases, compilers, hardware, CPU, and so forth.6 Explaining why he starts his book with data structures and not algorithms, Wirth writes: “One has an intuitive feeling that data precede algorithms: You must have some objects before you can perform operations on them” (2004: 7). Furthermore, Wirth’s book title suggests that algorithms and programs are not the same. A program, or software, is more than its algorithms. Algorithms alone do not make software computable. In order to compute, the source code must be transformed into an executable file, which is not a one-step process. The transformation usually follows multiple steps, which include translation as well as the involvement of other software programs, such as compilers and linkers. The “object file” created by the compiler is an intermediate form and not itself directly executable. In order for a program to be executed, another device called a linker must combine several object files into a functional program of executable (or “.exe”) files.7 Software is quite literally the gathering or assembling of diferent code files into a single “executable.” While software might appear to be a single entity, it is fundamentally layered and dependent on a myriad of diferent relations and devices in order to function. To compute information efectively, then, algorithms are based on particular representations and structures of data. Despite the mutual interdependence of algorithms and data structures, “we can treat the two as analytically distinct” (Gillespie,  2014: 169). Given that my primary interest lies in the operations performed on data—what\n\n22\n\nI F . . . T H E N","previous_page":21,"next_page":23}