Drawing Algorithms
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An algorithm, drawn by a 28-year-old female biomedical engineer in Germany.

Okay. Super. Then I have some final questions right now. And the first would be: Please draw again how an algorithm works. And use the same piece of paper. And now I would ask you to explain to me what you drew there. Yeah, so of course algorithm is a bit tricky, because / I am referring to a search algorithm here. And there is the input line, where I actually put in what I'm looking for. If I was just straight looking for a skateboard now, it would not just be looking for a skateboard, but it would get all the information from all the sources where it might have information from, be it Google, then they’re from like Maps and from Google and maybe also from the voice recordings - the information and then they're included, and that’s how you get the results that I see. Okay. Super. So then asked generally: How did you learn about the operation of algorithms? So I had some algorithms and data structures at university. Okay. An algorithm is actually a kind of command skeleton, be it for a software or a program or / that is relatively superficially expressed in this way: that’s why I know what an algorithm should actually be, but so I think in everyday language when speaking of an algorithm, search algorithm is really what is meant, on some search platform. Okay, so you think there's a difference between when people use the word algorithm and what it actually technically means? Exactly. You mean, you really understand how it works? Technically? More or less. I was never that good at this subject. It's quite complicated, but / so I think it gave me a little bit of insight into how commands work on computer-level. So that's partly in loops, for example. That this forms while-loops, so that basically information gets thrown in and that somehow runs a loop until a meaningful result, for example, comes out. Or that there are like causal connections. There are if-loops: only if this is a given, then that results fits, so that it again can go on a detour, so that it is a bit like more complex and not: You put something in and something comes out, but that's just in many different levels and on many different levels then like can include information. Did you learn more about algorithms or inform yourself about it? No. Okay. Did not you come across it or something? No, not really. Okay. And if you think again about our entire conversation from videos to products to maps and language assistants, is there anything else you would add or discuss? Well, I definitely thought I’ll check my privacy settings. Okay. And that's pretty crazy, how much information you actually give out so frivolously, by using all these apps and is somehow constantly logged in and then I think again, that I'll probably forget it again and again will not do it. Why do you think that you will forget it? Because / I don’t know. Because I have a lot on my mind and maybe it's not that important to me, because I think, maybe it helps that they have so much information about me that I'll get more meaningful results if I am really looking for something. And as I said, by the fact that I just have nothing to hide, that is maybe / does not really matter to me either. Okay. And I think that you cannot avoid having information collected about you nowadays, so maybe it's wasted time. What does that mean that you cannot avoid it? Yes, because everything is online and you're just typing in information that is somehow connected to you / Okay. I think, even if you just erase it, it's not completely gone. And what do you think about it and how do you like that? Yes, that's generally difficult, of course. But I also think that many people who get so upset about it / I don’t know. Well, honestly, personally, I don’t think it’s that bad. Okay. Yes. Of course it somehow it’s like disregarding privacy but in the end we kind of want it, in the sense that we type all this information into the internet. Yes. Good. Great.