The Hidden Algorithms That Power Your Everyday Life (Part 2 of 3)

**Title: How Algorithms Make Our Lives Easier: A Day in the Life with Algorithms**

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### Introduction to Algorithms

Welcome back to *Seeker Plus*! Today, we’re diving into the second episode of our three-part series on algorithms. If you missed the first episode, make sure to watch it because this one will build on what you learned there. Whether you’re new to this series or a returning viewer, stick around as we explore how algorithms are making our lives better every day.

Algorithms are like strings of mathematical instructions that sort and weigh information. They are powerful tools that help us navigate through the complexities of modern life. From identifying cats in photos to determining the shortest route on a map, algorithms are everywhere. This episode is all about how these invisible helpers are running humanity for the better.

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### Algorithms in Everyday Life

Let’s start with something most of us use daily: our phones. Did you know your phone is essentially a digital camera in your pocket? If you’re like me, you might have thousands of photos stored in your cloud library—over 90,000 in my case! Without algorithms, finding a specific photo would be a daunting task. Instead of relying on your memory to sort through dates or locations, you can simply use an algorithm designed by large tech companies. These algorithms can identify objects in images, like cats or dogs, and even distinguish between a birthday cake and a wedding cake (fun fact: it’s all about the candles!).

Algorithms are incredible because they turn complex tasks into simple processes. For example, setting a value for “yellow” and telling an algorithm to return everything yellow it sees is just one of the many ways algorithms make our lives easier. They can even listen to music and guess the lyrics of your favorite songs! The possibilities are endless as long as we can break down a task into a series of steps.

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### A Day with Algorithms: Running Errands

Let’s imagine you’re running errands today. First up: visiting a new doctor in San Francisco, a city known for its winding streets and countless intersections. With over 2,600 streets, 1,260 miles, and 5,300 blocks, finding the shortest route seems nearly impossible—especially since there are billions of ways to navigate the city. This is where algorithms come to the rescue.

The driving direction algorithm we use today can be traced back to an idea from the 1950s by a programmer named Edgar Dijkstra. He wanted to test the power of a new Dutch computer, so he programmed it to find the shortest route between 64 cities. His approach? Start with the closest point and calculate distances block by block, street by street, until all options are exhausted. The result? The shortest path. Versions of this algorithm are still used in GPS systems today. So next time your GPS says “recalculating,” remember it’s working hard to find the best route for you.

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### Algorithms on the Road

Once you’re on the road, algorithms are also helping keep you safe. Sensors on each wheel use algorithms to monitor torque, speed, and brake pressure, calculating slip rates to automatically pump brakes and prevent skidding. This traction control system ensures a smooth ride as you make your way to the doctor’s office.

At the doctor’s office, algorithms are already hard at work even before you arrive. Your DNA is being checked against known medical conditions, combined with your reported symptoms, and cross-referenced with a vast knowledgebase of medical literature. The results are sorted and ranked so your doctor can quickly review the most likely issues. Imagine if every doctor had access to this kind of information—your medical history would be more accurate than ever.

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### After the Doctor’s Visit: Finding Food

Leaving the doctor’s office, you’re probably hungry. If you’re in an unfamiliar neighborhood, algorithms can help you find a place to eat. From ratings to distance and even real-time data about whether a restaurant is open, algorithms are your guide to finding food. But here’s a thought: what if the algorithm rates a restaurant poorly and it shuts down? What if your favorite spot closes because the algorithm didn’t give it enough credit? It’s a reminder that while algorithms can be helpful, they’re not perfect.

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### Shopping Online

Once you’ve found a restaurant, you might want to pick up some shopping later. If you’re scrolling through your favorite e-commerce site, algorithms are already at work, analyzing your past purchases, the time it took you to decide, and even your browsing habits to recommend products tailored just for you. It’s all about getting you to click “buy” while keeping you engaged on their website.

When you do make a purchase, algorithms secure your transaction by hashing your credit card information into a seemingly random set of characters. This hashed data is sent over the internet, where another algorithm verifies it against your bank’s records. Once confirmed, an algorithm generates a confirmation email with all the details of your purchase—price, time of day, and expected arrival.

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### The Double-Edged Sword of Algorithms

As you reflect on this day filled with algorithms, it’s hard not to appreciate how much they simplify our lives. From navigating the city streets to managing medical records and shopping online, algorithms are silent heroes working behind the scenes. But as we saw earlier, there’s a flip side. Do we really want algorithms making every decision for us? Imagine if your teacher was an algorithm or if traffic lights were governed by AI. It’s a reminder that while algorithms are powerful tools, they’re not infallible.

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### Conclusion

So next time you find yourself marveling at the convenience of technology, take a moment to thank the algorithms working tirelessly in the background. They’re the reason your phone can identify objects in photos, your GPS finds the best route, and your doctor has access to critical medical information. But let’s not forget the importance of balance. While algorithms make life easier, they should enhance our humanity—not replace it.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe to *Seeker Plus* for more deep dives into big topics. And while you’re here, check out my channel, *Uno Dos de Tres*, where I explore other fascinating subjects. Until next time, keep seeking knowledge and stay curious!

---

**Note:** The transcription includes a sponsorship mention for Bombas socks. If you’re interested in comfortable, supportive socks with arch support and stay-up technology, visit [bombastcomm/seeker](https://www.bombas.com/seeker) and use the code **SEEKER** at checkout to get 20% off your first order!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone thanks for coming back to secret Plus today this is episode 2 of 3 on algorithms I am trace you might remember me from episode 1 if you didn't watch episode 1 go back and watch that this one will make a lot more sense also make sure you subscribe so you get all the episodes in this series this is seeker plus we take a big topic we break it into chunks so we all understand it a little bit better you can also find this as an audio podcast smooshed together into one just go look on iTunes SoundCloud you name it we are out there ok today we're gonna talk about algorithms for good how great they are how they benefit our lives a day in the life made better by algorithms but first let's kick into this algorithms are strings of mathematical statements that weigh different things and sort through information this is great right algorithms are awesome this episode is about how algorithms help run humanity for the better so let's go through some examples phones are digital cameras in our pocket right I have literally over 90,000 photos in my cloud library right now but how would I be able to find just one of those on my own by date maybe sure but what if it was spring summer what if I could type in the year or the GPS coordinates where was I you know all of those things would help me narrow it down but it's a lot to remember you know what's easier though just use an algorithm large tech companies have designed algorithms that can identify cats and pictures or dogs they can tell the difference between a birthday cake and a wedding cake funnily enough it's because birthday cakes have candles on them there are hundreds of different options rules and all sorts of algorithms that are sorting and returning information based on these pictures just in my phone algorithms are great at this all you have to do is find out the rules in this recipe the steps in this process so you could set a value for yellow say and tell the algorithm to return everything yellow it sees or tell it to listen and guess what words are being sung in your favorite song algorithms can literally do almost anything as long as we can break down that thing into a process so let's take one simple thing and look how an algorithm can make it so much better but first a quick break I have to tell you about the socks I'm wearing right now they are the most comfortable socks in the history of feet and they are called bombas their arch support system and stay up technology makes for a sock that stays in place while giving you all the support right where you need it all my other socks they just don't seem good enough go to bombast comm slash seeker use the code seeker and you'll get 20% off your first order that's be OMB is comm slash seeker the offer code is seeker and you will get 20% off your first order but back to the science let's say that you're gonna spend the day running some errands right there are so many algorithms that are gonna help you do that so let's say we have a new doctor I have a new doctor I got to go to a doctor in San Francisco San Francisco has over 2600 streets spanning twelve hundred and sixty miles over 5,300 blocks driving directions an algorithm will help me with that there are literally billions of ways to cross almost any large city especially San Francisco which is interesting because it's only 7 by 7 miles but a good way to think about a driving Direction algorithm is to think about the pseudo coupe puzzle the pseudo coupe Azul is a great example of something called the combinatorial explosion if you have two boxes and you can put a 1 or a 2 in those boxes you only have two options to solve the puzzle with three boxes a 1 2 or 3 now you have 12 options with 9 boxes you have 5 billion billion billion options not that many more boxes you guys that many that quickly is the combinatorial explosion the idea is the more options you have the more difficult it is to pick the right one the more options there are to calculate and this all works whether you're a Google person an Apple person a waser like Bing Maps or MapQuest I guess that's still a thing but all of these can trace their driving direction algorithm back to an idea from the 1950s a programmer named Edgar Dijkstra needed know the power of a new Dutch computer that was being built so he programmed it to find the shortest route between 64 different cities he looked at the closest starting point and only their distances how he did it is it would calculate the shortest blocks nearest you then look at the options after you go that way then calculate again find the shortest calculate again find the shortest and it would do it block by block Street by street section by section then once all the options were calculated it would pick the shortest one funnily enough it might seem really complicated but Dijkstra says he came up with this over his morning coffee while sitting on a terrace versions of this shortest path algorithm are still used today in GPS and travel planning when the GPS says recalculating give it a break because it's literally recalculating so many options it's working hard so you don't have to know the exact shortest path between two spots that's literally just one of many algorithms that are working just inside your car so remember we're gonna try and run an errand so so far this algorithm has made it so we can find our way more easily now there's traction control algorithms sensors on each wheel those all have algorithms that are feeding in torque speed brake pressure and they're finding a slip rate that automatically pumps the brakes on the wheel so that the tire doesn't slip too much on the way to your doctor the doctor's office is using my DNA knowing that I'm coming in that day to check against any known conditions that are out there in the scientific world the algorithm is using gene data in combination with any symptoms that I've reported and going through a knowledgebase of medical literature to see if there are any overlaps then it sorts the results and ranks them so that the doctor just looks at the top and says oh well you might have these things let's talk about it once I get to the doctor there are records in a database every drug I've ever taken every allergy that I have that's all there but the doctor she doesn't have time to look at all of that stuff so an algorithm could check my drug drug interactions automatically against papers that data-mine millions of reports filed with the FDA to see if the new drug she wants to put me on would interact in any way with the drugs that I'm already taking this could reveal possible side effects and drug drug interactions by digging through these medical reports and also available patient histories that algorithm doesn't exist yet but they're working on it so let's say now I leave the doctor's office and I'm hungry I've never been in this neighborhood an algorithm could help me find a place to eat it can rank choices by ratings and distance and use data like whether they're open or not if I'm stuck at a traffic light there are new algorithms to think about like data on waiting time real-time traffic monitoring why is this traffic light taking so long well maybe there are vehicles entering and leaving this intersection at such a rate that the algorithm that runs the traffic light is holding me here for a little bit to keep things flowing smoothly it's actually still an experimental algorithm by the way but it says it could increase movement in traffic by 25% overall so now I found a restaurant and I'm there and I'm eating lunch and I'm scrolling through my favorite shopping website the shopping website is using algorithms to see exactly what it is that I might want to buy trying to get me one to spend some money but also stay on their website and keep me happy so it's looking at my past purchases and how much they were and how long it took me to decide and it's showing me matches that would be a high probability for me to like them so that I would click to buy them and let's say I do I find something I like I'm gonna buy it my credit card is then hashed by another algorithm that is it's made into a seemingly random set of characters the website looks at their servers which is another algorithm sends that over the internet which is another algorithm to my bank which finds the account which is another algorithm and compares the hashed credit card to the credit card on their file and it confirms that yes that's his credit card then uses an algorithmic li generated email to me with the purchase price the cost the time of day when it will arrive all of these steps in this process there's sorting and coordinating data over and over and over and over and it has a deep understanding of all the steps in this process thanks to all these algorithms I look at this whole errand doctor driving direction process and I see a whole bunch of different things one my fictional life sounds actually pretty nice right I don't need a map I don't even memorize my medical history the doctor doesn't need to know all these drugs or allergies and stuff that I have all of that is thanks to an algorithm but you can also see the other side of it do I really want algorithms to know all this information or have all of these things broken into processes part of being human is I should be able to just like wander around my city and try and find all of these restaurants but what if the restaurant was rated poorly by the algorithm and it closed but it was my favorite restaurant imagine if you go to school and your teacher is governed by an algorithm imagine if your teacher was an algorithm do we really want algorithms running everything for more on that you're gonna have to come back next time thanks for tuning in to seeker plus everyone make sure that you watch more seeker plus hopefully the algorithm is recommending it to you but if not you can find all sorts of amazing videos here on seeker you can also come find me on my channel uno dos of tres while you're waiting for next week's episode make sure you watch more if we will circumvent the algorithm and recommend you one herehey everyone thanks for coming back to secret Plus today this is episode 2 of 3 on algorithms I am trace you might remember me from episode 1 if you didn't watch episode 1 go back and watch that this one will make a lot more sense also make sure you subscribe so you get all the episodes in this series this is seeker plus we take a big topic we break it into chunks so we all understand it a little bit better you can also find this as an audio podcast smooshed together into one just go look on iTunes SoundCloud you name it we are out there ok today we're gonna talk about algorithms for good how great they are how they benefit our lives a day in the life made better by algorithms but first let's kick into this algorithms are strings of mathematical statements that weigh different things and sort through information this is great right algorithms are awesome this episode is about how algorithms help run humanity for the better so let's go through some examples phones are digital cameras in our pocket right I have literally over 90,000 photos in my cloud library right now but how would I be able to find just one of those on my own by date maybe sure but what if it was spring summer what if I could type in the year or the GPS coordinates where was I you know all of those things would help me narrow it down but it's a lot to remember you know what's easier though just use an algorithm large tech companies have designed algorithms that can identify cats and pictures or dogs they can tell the difference between a birthday cake and a wedding cake funnily enough it's because birthday cakes have candles on them there are hundreds of different options rules and all sorts of algorithms that are sorting and returning information based on these pictures just in my phone algorithms are great at this all you have to do is find out the rules in this recipe the steps in this process so you could set a value for yellow say and tell the algorithm to return everything yellow it sees or tell it to listen and guess what words are being sung in your favorite song algorithms can literally do almost anything as long as we can break down that thing into a process so let's take one simple thing and look how an algorithm can make it so much better but first a quick break I have to tell you about the socks I'm wearing right now they are the most comfortable socks in the history of feet and they are called bombas their arch support system and stay up technology makes for a sock that stays in place while giving you all the support right where you need it all my other socks they just don't seem good enough go to bombast comm slash seeker use the code seeker and you'll get 20% off your first order that's be OMB is comm slash seeker the offer code is seeker and you will get 20% off your first order but back to the science let's say that you're gonna spend the day running some errands right there are so many algorithms that are gonna help you do that so let's say we have a new doctor I have a new doctor I got to go to a doctor in San Francisco San Francisco has over 2600 streets spanning twelve hundred and sixty miles over 5,300 blocks driving directions an algorithm will help me with that there are literally billions of ways to cross almost any large city especially San Francisco which is interesting because it's only 7 by 7 miles but a good way to think about a driving Direction algorithm is to think about the pseudo coupe puzzle the pseudo coupe Azul is a great example of something called the combinatorial explosion if you have two boxes and you can put a 1 or a 2 in those boxes you only have two options to solve the puzzle with three boxes a 1 2 or 3 now you have 12 options with 9 boxes you have 5 billion billion billion options not that many more boxes you guys that many that quickly is the combinatorial explosion the idea is the more options you have the more difficult it is to pick the right one the more options there are to calculate and this all works whether you're a Google person an Apple person a waser like Bing Maps or MapQuest I guess that's still a thing but all of these can trace their driving direction algorithm back to an idea from the 1950s a programmer named Edgar Dijkstra needed know the power of a new Dutch computer that was being built so he programmed it to find the shortest route between 64 different cities he looked at the closest starting point and only their distances how he did it is it would calculate the shortest blocks nearest you then look at the options after you go that way then calculate again find the shortest calculate again find the shortest and it would do it block by block Street by street section by section then once all the options were calculated it would pick the shortest one funnily enough it might seem really complicated but Dijkstra says he came up with this over his morning coffee while sitting on a terrace versions of this shortest path algorithm are still used today in GPS and travel planning when the GPS says recalculating give it a break because it's literally recalculating so many options it's working hard so you don't have to know the exact shortest path between two spots that's literally just one of many algorithms that are working just inside your car so remember we're gonna try and run an errand so so far this algorithm has made it so we can find our way more easily now there's traction control algorithms sensors on each wheel those all have algorithms that are feeding in torque speed brake pressure and they're finding a slip rate that automatically pumps the brakes on the wheel so that the tire doesn't slip too much on the way to your doctor the doctor's office is using my DNA knowing that I'm coming in that day to check against any known conditions that are out there in the scientific world the algorithm is using gene data in combination with any symptoms that I've reported and going through a knowledgebase of medical literature to see if there are any overlaps then it sorts the results and ranks them so that the doctor just looks at the top and says oh well you might have these things let's talk about it once I get to the doctor there are records in a database every drug I've ever taken every allergy that I have that's all there but the doctor she doesn't have time to look at all of that stuff so an algorithm could check my drug drug interactions automatically against papers that data-mine millions of reports filed with the FDA to see if the new drug she wants to put me on would interact in any way with the drugs that I'm already taking this could reveal possible side effects and drug drug interactions by digging through these medical reports and also available patient histories that algorithm doesn't exist yet but they're working on it so let's say now I leave the doctor's office and I'm hungry I've never been in this neighborhood an algorithm could help me find a place to eat it can rank choices by ratings and distance and use data like whether they're open or not if I'm stuck at a traffic light there are new algorithms to think about like data on waiting time real-time traffic monitoring why is this traffic light taking so long well maybe there are vehicles entering and leaving this intersection at such a rate that the algorithm that runs the traffic light is holding me here for a little bit to keep things flowing smoothly it's actually still an experimental algorithm by the way but it says it could increase movement in traffic by 25% overall so now I found a restaurant and I'm there and I'm eating lunch and I'm scrolling through my favorite shopping website the shopping website is using algorithms to see exactly what it is that I might want to buy trying to get me one to spend some money but also stay on their website and keep me happy so it's looking at my past purchases and how much they were and how long it took me to decide and it's showing me matches that would be a high probability for me to like them so that I would click to buy them and let's say I do I find something I like I'm gonna buy it my credit card is then hashed by another algorithm that is it's made into a seemingly random set of characters the website looks at their servers which is another algorithm sends that over the internet which is another algorithm to my bank which finds the account which is another algorithm and compares the hashed credit card to the credit card on their file and it confirms that yes that's his credit card then uses an algorithmic li generated email to me with the purchase price the cost the time of day when it will arrive all of these steps in this process there's sorting and coordinating data over and over and over and over and it has a deep understanding of all the steps in this process thanks to all these algorithms I look at this whole errand doctor driving direction process and I see a whole bunch of different things one my fictional life sounds actually pretty nice right I don't need a map I don't even memorize my medical history the doctor doesn't need to know all these drugs or allergies and stuff that I have all of that is thanks to an algorithm but you can also see the other side of it do I really want algorithms to know all this information or have all of these things broken into processes part of being human is I should be able to just like wander around my city and try and find all of these restaurants but what if the restaurant was rated poorly by the algorithm and it closed but it was my favorite restaurant imagine if you go to school and your teacher is governed by an algorithm imagine if your teacher was an algorithm do we really want algorithms running everything for more on that you're gonna have to come back next time thanks for tuning in to seeker plus everyone make sure that you watch more seeker plus hopefully the algorithm is recommending it to you but if not you can find all sorts of amazing videos here on seeker you can also come find me on my channel uno dos of tres while you're waiting for next week's episode make sure you watch more if we will circumvent the algorithm and recommend you one here\n"