Track 3: Dirty Computer — Janelle Monáe feat. Brian Wilson

But just what is an algorithm?

The basic idea is simple enough to grasp. The textbook Introduction to algorithms describes it as a set of computer instructions that take input values and produce output values. You could think of it as a recipe, using ingredients as inputs to produce a dish by following a set of prescribed steps. Or a knitting pattern.

Keep reading, however, and the computer scientists might lose you. The textbook’s most basic example is the sorting algorithm: a formula for ordering a given set of numbers. Even for such a simple process, I find the code inscrutable. I can only imagine what a complex algorithm might look like.