????早上你醒來后馬上就查看Gmail郵箱，其中郵件的排列順序是由谷歌專門開發(fā)的算法決定的；午餐時(shí)分，你登錄Deadspin網(wǎng)站閱讀體育類八卦消息，該網(wǎng)站又使用另一套專門算法來推廣最積極的評(píng)論者；吃完晚飯，你從一份精選電影節(jié)目單中選一部觀看——友好的Netflix算法早已根據(jù)你過去選看電影的口味選出了你可能喜歡的新片。其他一些算法則幫助我們決定沿哪條路出行、聽什么音樂乃至股票會(huì)以什么方式波動(dòng)。

????簡而言之，算法正在接管我們的生活。所謂算法，只是一套軟件代碼而已，運(yùn)作方式類似于決策樹，即考慮多種變量，然后產(chǎn)生結(jié)論或推薦。“機(jī)器人程序”（bot）通常是一系列算法的集合。如果不像克里斯多弗?斯坦納那樣退一步看，人們很難意識(shí)到算法近幾年來的發(fā)展多么迅猛、影響多么深遠(yuǎn)，也無法認(rèn)識(shí)到它對(duì)現(xiàn)代文明的影響。斯坦納的著作《自動(dòng)化：算法統(tǒng)治世界》（Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World）闡明了這些問題。

????斯坦納原是《福布斯》（Forbes ）撰稿人，三年前他決定闡釋交易算法（其最簡單的形式是，根據(jù)操作者輸入的數(shù)據(jù)決定何時(shí)買/賣）對(duì)華爾街的巨大影響。那時(shí)，極為復(fù)雜的交易機(jī)器人程序已經(jīng)變革了金融市場。隨后斯坦納又決定將他的報(bào)道拓展到金融領(lǐng)域之外，結(jié)果就寫成了這樣一本無所不包的著作，描繪機(jī)器開始統(tǒng)治包括婚戀交友服務(wù)、音樂、醫(yī)藥在內(nèi)的各行各業(yè)的情形。

????In the morning you wake up and check your Gmail, which is sorted for you courtesy of a proprietary Google (GOOG) bot. At lunchtime you read sports gossip on Deadspin, which deploys another set of proprietary algorithms to promote the most prolific commenters. After dinner you pick a movie from a menu of choices that a friendly Netflix (NFLX) algorithm queued up for you based on its record of your cinematic taste. Other algorithms help determine which streets we drive, the music we hear, and which way stocks move.

????In short, algorithms are taking over our lives. An algorithm is simply a piece of software code that operates like a decision tree, considering multiple variables and then spitting out a decision or recommendation. (A bot is typically a collection of algorithms.) Without taking a step back, as Christopher Steiner does in Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World, it's hard to appreciate how fast and far algorithms have come in recent years, and what the consequences are for modern culture.

????Steiner, a former Forbes writer, set out three years ago to explain how trading algorithms (which, in their simplest form, make buy/sell decisions based on various data inputs) had overtaken Wall Street. By that time, wildly complex trading bots had transformed financial markets. Steiner then decided to expand his reporting outside finance. The result is an encompassing tale of how industries as diverse as dating services, music and medicine all came to be ruled by machines.