INTRODUCTION

Modern civilization is the sum of technology. Each technology allows to provide a certain function, which, being interconnected with others, generates certain products and services that form the fabric of civilization.

The technology itself is a kind of algorithm that, when executed in a specific environment and using certain resources, creates the final product of this technology.

Thus, modern technological civilization is the sum of algorithms. It is the algorithms that form the basis of our civilization. Algorithms are the basis of social, economic and technical systems.
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Legislation, systems of economic regulation, technical laws - these are all the essence of algorithms. Any business, state, any other products of civilization are based on algorithms.

PLACE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE STRUCTURE OF CIVILIZATION

One of the essential elements of modern civilization in recent decades have become information technology. There is a certain lack of understanding of the essence and meaning of information technology. What are their benefits, what place should they occupy in the structure of civilization?

When considering ad hoc information technologies, there is a feeling that their importance is exaggerated, their contribution is overestimated.

Such an opinion is not without reason, but not because information technologies are meaningless, but because they are incorrectly positioned.

Information technologies are considered as a kind of “golden key”, the “Holy Grail”, which itself should supposedly add some value to the processes in which they are involved. Of course, nothing like this. Information technology itself is not something critical. All the processes that use them, as a rule, can be carried out without them, and civilization has managed without them for millennia and at the same time has quite well existed and developed.

But if you look at information technology as the basis for the execution of algorithms, then everything immediately falls into place: information technology is the first system in the history of mankind that was able to take on the execution of algorithms. Before their appearance, only people could execute algorithms. And only with their appearance, the person was able to shift the execution of the algorithms to the "iron", leaving himself the task of developing algorithms.

That is why literate historians who investigate information technologies consider the beginning of the development of this technology industry not the first processor, but the first program-controlled weaving looms and self-playing pianos with punched tapes. If you look further, the mechanisms for astronomical calculations on gears and levers are also information technologies, since, in fact, they shift the question of the implementation of the algorithm onto the mechanism.

ALGORITHMS AS ACTIVE

In modern society, the importance of algorithms is not widely recognized. Few people think that our whole life is an algorithm by which we are somehow forced to live. Among them there are good, there are bad. The good are good and lead to progress, the bad are bad and create problems.

All civilization revolves around algorithms: social algorithms, economic algorithms, technical algorithms. It is algorithms, and not their execution subsystem, that are competitive advantages at all levels. Starting from the level of countries and nations and ending with the production of basic things.

Of course, it is not easy to unify the description of algorithms of different levels. Algorithms are divided into classes, each of which has its own ways of describing, its own language, its own approaches.

But, nevertheless, the understanding that all civilization is algorithms can lead to a rethinking of the management of an intellectual system, unify approaches to working with algorithms, as with some object and lead to the creation of a bank of algorithms.

Globally, any algorithm can be described by the following characteristics:

1. Algorithm Description
2. Algorithm class
3. Algorithm inputs
4. Algorithm outputs

The class of the algorithm must be described by a tag structure, which together positions the algorithm in the space of all algorithms. Tags can be both simple and hierarchical, tied to classifiers. The combination of the class, the inputs and the outputs of the algorithms makes it possible to determine the equivalence relation on the set of algorithms, which will make it possible to provide a choice from a set of algorithms for solving the same problem.

Inside the classes of algorithms, additional characteristics may appear that provide clearer specifications, which will allow such operations as comparing the efficiency of algorithms, execution platforms, rank utility and feasibility.

EXECUTION OF ALGORITHMS

Currently, there are two execution environments of the algorithms: a human and a computing system. Perhaps with the development of science, there will be other execution environments.

Each specific algorithm is executed in one of the environments. In the case of a "joint" execution of the algorithm, it can be decomposed to the level of separation between execution environments.

Algorithms are divided according to the principle of their organization:

1. A fixed algorithm is a specific sequence of actions defined by a specific set of steps.
2. Expert system - a set of rules obtained by interviewing experts, who, applying consistently, provide a conversion of inputs to outputs.
3. A learning system is a system capable of “learning”, an algorithm in which is formed by “training” on the basis of certain samples, while learning objectives and material for training are selected by external actors.
4. A self-learning system is a system that is capable of setting goals on its own and, accordingly, searching for training samples on its own, which leads to “self-programming”.

Currently, all 4 principles are accessible only to humans, computing systems can be platforms for algorithms from first to third.

FINDINGS

Based on the foregoing, we can draw the following conclusions:

• Algorithms are the basis of civilization.
• Information technologies are valuable in that they created another environment for the execution of algorithms besides humans.
• It is necessary to create a bank of algorithms.
• There are 4 principles of organization of algorithms.