1、机器人程序的崛起早上你醒来后马上就查看 Gmail 邮箱，其中邮件的排列顺序是由谷歌专门开发的算法决定的；午餐时分，你登录 Deadspin 网站阅读体育类八卦消息，该网站又使用另一套专门算法来推广最积极的评论者；吃完晚饭，你从一份精选电影节目单中选一部观看友好的 Netflix 算法早已根据你过去选看电影的口味选出了你可能喜欢的新片。其他一些算法则帮助我们决定沿哪条路出行、听什么音乐乃至股票会以什么方式波动。In the morning you wake up and check your Gmail, which is sorted for you courtesy of a propri
2、etary 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 o
3、f your cinematic taste. Other algorithms help determine which streets we drive, the music we hear, and which way stocks move.早上你醒来后马上就查看 Gmail 邮箱，其中邮件的排列顺序是由谷歌专门开发的算法决定的；午餐时分，你登录 Deadspin 网站阅读体育类八卦消息，该网站又使用另一套专门算法来推广最积极的评论者；吃完晚饭，你从一份精选电影节目单中选一部观看友好的 Netflix 算法早已根据你过去选看电影的口味选出了你可能喜欢的新片。其他一些算法则帮助我们决定沿
4、哪条路出行、听什么音乐乃至股票会以什么方式波动。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 taki
5、ng a step back, as Christopher Steiner does in Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World, its hard to appreciate how fast and far algorithms have come in recent years, and what the consequences are for modern culture.斯坦纳原是福布斯 （Forbes ）撰稿人，三年前他决定阐释交易算法（其最简单的形式是，根据操作者输入的数据决定何时买/卖）对华尔街的巨大影响。
6、那时，极为复杂的交易机器人程序已经变革了金融市场。随后斯坦纳又决定将他的报道拓展到金融领域之外，结果就写成了这样一本无所不包的著作，描绘机器开始统治包括婚恋交友服务、音乐、医药在内的各行各业的情形。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 Stree
7、t. 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.有家叫 Savage Beast 的公司很能
8、说明问题。该公司创立于上世纪 90 年代，它的运作方式是付费请数百名音乐人听歌，然后依据 400 项音乐特质（包括节奏、音调及众多其他要素）对其进行归类。Savage Beast 试图向 Tower Records 及百思买（Best Buy）之类音乐相关产品零售商销售其音乐推荐服务，但销路惨淡。该公司差点就没能活过 2000 年的网络股泡沫破灭潮，2005 年时已经奄奄一息。此后，它转用算法、而不是真正的音乐人来生成音乐推荐信息，并摇身一变，改名为 Pandora。2011 年，这家公司上市，市值高达 30 亿美元。Theres Savage Beast, a 1990s startup t
9、hat paid hundreds of musicians to listen to songs and classify them according to some 400 musical attributes, including rhythm, tonality, and much more. Savage Beast tried without luck to sell its music recommendation service to music retailers like Tower Records and Best Buy (BBY). The company barely survived the 2000 dotcom bust and was on life support by 2005, when it started to produce music recommendations using algorithms instead of live musicians. Along the way, Savage Beast changed its name to Pandora (P). In 2011 it went public with a $3 billion valuation.本文来自：http:/
