The Perfect Algorithm.
What is a perfect algorithm? Is there really such a thing? Currently, every second, billions, if not trillions, of data points are processed across world servers. This feat of ingenuity stands as one of the marvels in technological advancement that we humans have pioneered over the years.
Surely, we can't process this amount of data—well, yes, we can. The evolution of the internet and the shared concept of data has propelled us into a realm of groundbreaking and inventive solutions. Not only for managing and storing data but, more crucially, for computing and traversing these vast data points. Now you might say, "Well, we can process this much data because of how fast our computers are." You are not wrong. "Yes, fast computers, fast processing speed, no brainer." But finding the right way to store and traverse these data is also just as important. Follow me. Let's explore the timeline, and who knows, we just might find it—the perfect algorithm.
The year is 300 BC. You might be wondering why we're delving into such ancient realms. I mean, what else could one possibly do in 300 BC, aside from herding goats and trading silk? They couldn't possibly be developing algorithms this far back. Well, apparently, you can be a mathematician with comprehensive knowledge in geometry and number theory, publish a collection of 13 books collectively known as the Elements, and pioneer mathematical studies for the next 15 centuries. Nice. This is the story of Euclid, a Greek mathematician whose name is attributed to the Euclidean algorithm—an algorithm considered to be one of the oldest ever. It's important to note that we are not sure if Euclid developed the Euclidean algorithm, but the algorithm is often associated with his name due to its appearance in the works of later mathematicians, such as the Greek mathematician and philosopher Diophantus. Another heavyweight in the world of mathematics.
Over the coming years, the discipline of generating easier ways around data grew, and we got some more algorithms, to name a few: Fibonacci Sequence, Chinese Remainder theorem, The Madhava series, and Dijkstra's Algorithm, among others. These algorithms, like characters in a grand narrative, contribute to the unfolding story of our quest for optimized data manipulation. Let's not forget that around this time, computers were not a thing, and building algorithms to tackle large sums of numbers and computations was mostly theoretical at this point. But not for long. Enter the digital age. No more varying voltages and continuous waveforms and air pressures to represent data; we now had binary digits (bits). This changed the landscape, and now the impossibility of managing larger sums of data became possible. Thus heralding a new era of connectivity and communication.
Today we have gone leaps and bounds beyond what we were capable of with data 30 to 40 years ago in terms of computation power, storage size, interoperability, and algorithm implementations. So now we are back to the question, back to the beginning, what is the perfect algorithm? Is there really a perfect algorithm?
The truth is I don't know. Yeah, I get it. That's a bit anticlimactic; we went this far back, and we can't figure out what the perfect algorithm looks like. But maybe we are early. Maybe there is still a bit more to go in our timeline. The field of quantum computing is a relatively unknown commodity, but it comes with a promise of practicability for many algorithm theories that go beyond what our best computers and current algorithms can do. The journey will continue, and the perfect algorithm, if it exists, awaits discovery in the uncharted territories of tomorrow.
The journey will continue, and the perfect algorithm, if it exists, awaits discovery in the uncharted territories of tomorrow.