The concept of algorithm has existed since antiquity. Arithmetic algorithms, such as a division algorithm, were used by ancient Babylonian mathematicians c. 2500 BC and Egyptian mathematicians c. 1550 BC. Greek mathematicians later used algorithms in 240 BC in the sieve of Eratosthenes for finding prime numbers, and the Euclidean algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers. Arabic mathematicians such as al-Kindi in the 9th century used cryptographic algorithms for code-breaking, based on frequency analysis.
Machine learning (ML) is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows software applications to become more accurate at predicting outcomes without being explicitly programmed to do so. Machine learning algorithms use historical data as input to predict new output values.
The word algorithm is derived from the name of the 9th-century Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūs?? al-Khw??rizmī, whose name was Latinized as Algoritmi.
Its simplest definition is 'set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of operations'.

The earliest evidence of algorithms is found in the Babylonian mathematics of ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). A Sumerian clay tablet found in Shuruppak near Baghdad and dated to circa 2500 BC described the earliest division algorithm. During the Hammurabi dynasty circa 1800-1600 BC, Babylonian clay tablets described algorithms for computing formulas. Algorithms were also used in Babylonian astronomy. Babylonian clay tablets describe and employ algorithmic procedures to compute the time and place of significant astronomical events.

Algorithms for arithmetic are also found in ancient Egyptian mathematics, dating back to the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus circa 1550 BC. Algorithms were later used in ancient Hellenistic mathematics. Two examples are the Sieve of Eratosthenes, which was described in the Introduction to Arithmetic by Nicomachus and the Euclidean algorithm, which was first described in Euclid's Elements (c. 300 BC).

The first cryptographic algorithm for deciphering encrypted code was developed by Al-Kindi, a 9th-century Arab mathematician, in A Manuscript On Deciphering Cryptographic Messages. He gave the first description of cryptanalysis by frequency analysis, the earliest codebreaking algorithm.
Indian mathematics was predominantly algorithmic. Algorithms that are representative of the Indian mathematical tradition range from the ancient Śulbasūtr??s to the medieval texts of the Kerala School. Another early use of the word is from 1240, in a manual titled Carmen de Algorismo composed by Alexandre de Villedieu. It begins with:
Haec algorismus ars praesens dicitur, in qua
Talibus Indorum fruimur bis quinque figuris.
which translates to:
Algorism is the art by which at present we use those Indian figures, which number two times five.
The poem is a few hundred lines long and summarizes the art of calculating with the new styled Indian dice (Tali Indorum), or Hindu numerals.
(Wikipedia)

The evolution of algorithms can be traced back to the evolution of mini-computers in the 60's with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo, the expansion of the mind (Mercury).
With the first sextile from 1995 to 1997, the first version of Windows was released.
The quintile phase in the early 2000 saw the emergence of Peer-to-Peer connections like Napster that modulated connections through different planes.
But it really took off during the square phase between 2012-2015 with the Bitcoin being released approaching this phase and the large scale use by political organisations that led to the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected without their consent by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, predominantly to be used for political advertising and it was revealed by The Guardian and The New York Times that they helped in the election of Donald Trump.
Pluto enters Aquarius in March 2023 and Uranus enters Gemini in July 2025. The trine phase will be prominent between 2026 and 2028 in Air Signs.

What future for astrology?

Like divinatory techniques, algorithmic systems of prediction should be considered as modes of knowledge aimed at ordering the world. Despite their differences, they do indeed share a common ambition:
The seemingly irresistible need to explain, to bring order to things, to discover in them (or to give them) a meaning by seeing in them (or by establishing) relationships that make a disparate set of diverse sensations a fabric organized, unified in space, and, perhaps above all, in time.
(Atlan H., 1986, À tort ou à raison. Intercritique de la science et du mythe.)

In a paper published by Christophe Lazaro, he explains citing Chandler that 'Big data is therefore generally considered to generate a different type of “knowledge???: closer to the translation or interpretation of signs than to the understanding of chains of causality.'
He goes on to explain that “The spectacular development of algorithmic systems capable of collecting, analyzing and processing massive quantities of data have arguably conferred on humans a new device of prediction allowing to optimize decision-making processes, to anticipate risks and to exercise control over individuals. In the era of Big data, applications based on new machine learning methods are developed in various fields such as security, marketing and entertainment. These algorithmic systems, we contend, have to be understood as original modes of prediction and preemption of the future. Drawing inspiration from divinatory practices of classical Antiquity as described in Cicero’s Treatise De Divinatione, we shed light on the contemporary beliefs in the predictive power of algorithms. “
DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1052640ar

In a near future, it will be possible via algorithms to have a computer machine who will start to talk the language of astrology. Launching an algorithm which will first read all the literature written by astrologers around the world in all languages, listening to phone calls, messages, chats, forums, emails and websites, it will be become an 'astrologer' with deep-learning.
Just like computers which have started to create and publish cookbooks based on the knowledge they have acquired by reading recipes.

Christophe Lazaro warns us of 3 forms of opacity with this new data-driven science.


1) The first form of opacity relates to their status as “black boxes??? computing (Kallinikos 2002) including computational complexity and logic can only be grasped by specialists. In this regard, the knowledge of the computer scientist is similar to that of the diviner. Indeed, to take the auspices or decipher the viscera, it is necessary to have learned, through training or an initiation, the meaning of the signs and, moreover, to have a certain experience of the discipline (Guillaumont 2006: 90). The opacity characterizes here especially the perception that the layman has of algorithms.

2) In this line, the second form of opacity implicated in the literature concerns algorithmic systems based on systems of artificial intelligence. Far beyond the problem of acquiring a culture digital, the operation of the self-learning algorithms used in the predictive analysis systems can be obscure even for specialists:
As we have already mentioned, the intelligibility of correlations and categorizations made by the algorithm is sometimes lacking, so it is difficult to trace the different steps that led to a decision. Because this one has no grounds or clear explanation, it requires then a particularly delicate work of interpretation comparable to what goes through divinatory practices.... This second level of technical opacity is also problematic because it has the effect of masking any errors and biases resulting from the use of some algorithmic systems. In terms of predictive models, this can lead to serious problems of discrimination (Zarsky 2013) or detection of “false positives???, as in the often dramatic cases of identification of people with no real terrorist intent (Munk 2017).

Note: When I was working for a tech company in audio-video, I personally witnessed some of the errors the new technology can bring. One day, my colleagues were installing a new smart camera able to detect who is talking in a boardroom. Now mind you, there was an African black man with a white tie in the room and every time he was talking, the camera was focusing on his tie instead of his face!!! The camera had been programmed to detect the 'light' of the face, which the camera could not do and was ending up on the tie.

3) Finally, a third form of opacity associated with algorithmic systems contemporaries takes on a more institutional dimension. She participates of a kind of culture of secrecy, deployed intentionally by certain organizations, through not only legal provisions in terms of of intellectual property closing access to the code, but more generally through a set of insidious economic and political practices and crafty (Manovich 2009). These practices, sometimes aimed at misleading users, to steal data from them, to observe their behavior for sometimes malicious, end up constituting what Pasquale calls in a book become an essential “black box society??? (Pasquale 2015).

When we reach the Uranus-Pluto opposition in 2046, I think the definition of an astrologer and the tools that we use will be totally different.
Not to mention the advent of the 3rd web generation (www3) which will be using the blockchain like Cryptos and a unique way of securely recording and transferring information. For the creators and the copyright this will be well received but I am not sure that Big Corp will loose in the battle.

Another point I would like to bring up is my discomfort with the use of these new technologies by astrology websites and organisations.
Oftentimes, you go to a website and the address of the website transforms itself into an extension with letters, numbers and special characters (&078-d-cma-4870... for example). You know that your visit as been recorded with your digital signature and whatever information Google and all other search engines have on you.
Question: What are they doing with this information?

I have also seen and not naming any organisations here but 'Chatbots' on conference calls and seminars. A chatbot, also called dialoguer or conversational agent, is a software agent that dialogues with a user. Research on this person-machine interface is influenced by competition on the Turing test: giving the illusion that a program thinks through meaningful dialogue. (Wiki)
One day, I saw so many 'people' in a conference call with the same type of behavior and comments like 'Oh! Its wonderful' "How can I register to your course" . At one point, I started to interact to what looked like 'Chatbots' in a different language in private and I got Zero answer, not even a ''What?"

Not sure if other people here have had a similar experience.

Ouranos

Here is another article posted at AstirMind
https://www.astirmind.com/blogdetails/3/

"Once sufficient data is collected it must be codified and stored with modern database technology so that it can be accessed from computer programs. Standard relational database technology can be used but since the data is of high dimensionality with many missing values, sparse matrix techniques or columnar databases can be used for efficient storage. Once the data is accessible to programs, then the same data science tools that are used by companies like Google to build predictive tools for, say, voice or image recognition, can be used to either validate traditional predictive models of astrology or create a new rules of prediction. In fact, these new models may contradict traditional models and generate more accurate predictions. Going further, once we associate astrology with machine learning, then it can be included in the curriculum in universities. As a data driven science, astrology must move from the Age of Parashara to the Age of Google. After careful analysis we can admit that machine learning is new age astrology.???

thanks ouranos

it is an interesting conversation topic!

of course this makes me think of technology and the age of technology and how our lives are so very different then they might have been 100 years ago.. that idea of aquarius rising and the uranus energy taking over from the age of pisces and etc. etc. looms large.. and then the dreaded thought that corporations are using the technology to profit and control outcomes that are in their own best interests, but not in the publics best interests...

you mention the uranus-pluto conjunction.. i have often thought of this age of aquarius idea as uranus being dominated by pluto.. i suppose it is this simplistic thought around the upper square - scorpio is the 10th to aquarius... if we go with the modern rulers - pluto has the upper hand.. these planets don't work well in a square with one another... for the time being they are in a sort of trine with one another.. generally these planets are very different in nature and i think of them mostly in conflict with one another because of the very different temperaments they suggest to me... basically it is the air temperament verses the water temperament.... one is the subconsciousness of the other...

with the advent of social media, i am always surprised at the lack of concern for privacy... of course the collection of personal information is rampant since 9-11 and corporations like google are at the forefront... we have no privacy laws it seems.. meanwhile AI is another interesting technological development, along with the algorithms and tracking people this way and that.. at what point do people collectively realize they are being exploited? it seems like a long ways off..

when it comes to astrology utilizing algorithms, it seems we are over half way their... maybe i don't fully grasp it.. we collect events to try to establish an accurate birth time.. this is what a computer can and does do.. and yet, we believe that it is the human element that makes the difference, which i also think is true..

without a vision for a future that is attractive and appealing to us, there will be a lot of rebellion at the incursion of technology into our lives... yes, there are many positives, but we need to remain aware of the downside to the greater use of technology too.. that is how i frame much of what you bring up here... thanks for your posts!

Ouranos wrote:

"Going further, once we associate astrology with machine learning, then it can be included in the curriculum in universities. As a data driven science, astrology must move from the Age of Parashara to the Age of Google. After careful analysis we can admit that machine learning is new age astrology."

https://www.astirmind.com/blogdetails/3/

Composed of an infinite number of variables, astrology is a spiritual science (meaning not entirely operating in the physical universe). One would have to have the mind of God (which true spiritual masters actually have) in order to make flawless predictions. Physical computers will never have this connection to the Divine Mind. The only radio to this infinite source is the individual human mind, whose source is indeed the Mind of the Great Architect.

"The stars are about to take an unfriendly interest in you, Mukunda. Fear not; you shall be protected. In about a month your liver will cause you much trouble. The illness is scheduled to last for six months, but your use of an astrological armlet will shorten the period to twenty-four days."

Swami Sri Yukteswar, Autobiography of a Yogi, chapter 16.

https://anandaindia.org/paramhansa-yoga ... the-stars/

No computer will every be able to make this type of precise prediction. Any of us who have struggled with astrological research know that patterns that might show up in 20 or even 50 cases will be tossed to the wind in the next 20 or 50 cases. Nothing is ever repeated exactly twice in the Divine Architect's infinite universe of change.

oh, and i like how the english language makes an ass of itself again...

rithms..... rhythms... algorithms... algorhythms.. being a drummer and rhythms being a part of what i do, i wonder why they bastardized the word algo- rhythms...

Thank you James and Therese,

My understanding of Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms is that they are able to process 'metadatas' far more than what a human mind is capable of.

Let's take the weather for example and for which we have a ton of collected data.
- You put a computer who first digest everything that has been written by astrologers over the centuries in all languages (including Latin, Greek, Akkadian, Arabic, Hebrew and you name it)
- You code an algorithm to classify the aspects between the planets, Fixed Stars, Lunar phases, Terms, Rulerships, Signs, Asteroids, Midpoints, Astro*Carto*Graphy... basically everything that the astrologers have written about (and you can include the knowledge of the science).
- And then you ask him 'What are the probabilities that there will be a tornado somewhere in the world in June?"
This is basically what we do when we look at a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in past history. Astrologers have acquired the knowledge that this bring epidemics, wars, famines, bearish stock market.

This is just one example of what a computer could do as a primary analysis. The chess master today is called Big Blue, the super computer and its capability of evaluating 200 million positions per second,

In some major cities in US, an algorithm is "listening' to what is being said on social medias every day and is able to predict where a crime is most likely to happen thus helping the police.

Imagine a computer with a keyboard in front of you. You have the key Ptolemy or Krishnamurti. You press on it and here it is, you know exactly what interpretation he gives to this chart from his writings, example charts he worked on and as a bonus... everything written by its followers.

What we value as astrologers is the seasoned person who has acquired the knowledge in astrology and the experience and computers have just entered the Age of Deep-learning.

Here is what Yoshua Bengio, a leader in AI is saying:

"I would say that some aspects of humanity are less accessible and creativity of the kind that we appreciate is probably one that is going to be something that’s going to take more time to reach. But maybe even more difficult for computers, but also quite important, will be to understand not just human emotions, but also something a little bit more abstract, which is our sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. And this is actually an important question because when we’re going to put these computers in the world, in products, and they’re going to take decisions, well for some very simple things we know how to define the task, but sometimes the computer is going to be having to make a compromise between doing the task that it wants to do and maybe doing bad things in the world. And so, it needs to know what is bad. What is morally wrong? What is socially acceptable? And, I think we’ll manage to train computers to understand that, but it’s going to take a while as well.???

hi ouranos

some of what you say is undoubtedly true.. however, let me quote einstein...

"the intuitive mind is a sacred gift... the rational mind is a faithful servant... we have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.."

i don't believe AI and computers are capable of everything and most significantly what you refer to as - "our sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. " being one example of what is outside its domain and ability..

as i see it the idea of science and or technology as the new GOD of our times has a lot of adherents, me - not being one of them... again - thanks for your posts and commentary.. cheers james

Re: "...as i see it the idea of science and or technology as the new GOD of our times has a lot of adherents, me - not being one of them..."

I wholeheartedly agree. And, in science/technology, there is no moral connection, no specific goals/ideals mandated. ie. science is a TOOL and just like I can use a hammer to build houses for the homeless, I can use that same hammer to relieve an elderly senior of their money

The same way that science CAN lead us to the Truth, it can also take us 180° away from it, convincingly. Currently, monetary interests steer science.

Currently, monetary interests steer science.

Thank you Atlantean,
Not just science but the world.

Josuah Bengio is teaching and forming new students in AI and puts the importance of moral values in the new technologies. It has to work hand-in-hand otherwise the world is going to hit a wall.
Who are the biggest investors in AI right now?
The military.
Killer drones are one example. Using satellites equipped with facial recognition, with a wingspan of 1 meter, it can travel up to 130 kilometers per hour for 30 minutes, and deliberately crashes into a target, detonating a 3-kilo explosive.
Sorry if you look-alike Kim Jong-un.

Another example, Lauren Oyler's first novel, “Fake Accounts??? examines the alluring trap of our online personas on social medias.
And they are relentless. Some fake accounts will post that a manifestation pro something will take place at a certain location (all faked!) and then they will target those against the manifestants (profiles gathered with algorithms) to incite them to get there. Finally, there is a real manifestation all happening and created from someone sitting behind his computer in Russia.

Is it a coincidence if Eris was discovered in 2005, the same year that Facebook was launched.
Eris is the urge to speak out against and fight anything that you consider to go against your morals.
The biggest threat to democracy is located in Silicon Valley.

thanks Atlantean - james!

my friend aj pointed out the quote of einstein is a bastardized thing, so not completely einsteins thought..

ouranos

the world is going to hit a wall..people are naive to think technology is some kind of savior - GOD like savior... as you note - the biggest investors in AI are the military... what kind of morals and ethics go with that? and it ain't silicon valley.. it is more where the cia - fbi, 5 eyes and those types are centered... the head of google and etc. etc.. probably washington, but really if there was a place called ''fear and loathing'' - that is where they would be located...

someone pointed out to me the idea that one can't solve a problem on the level of the problem... they need to solve it on the level of the solution.. nothing is ever that simple, but it is nice to romanticize! cheers james

James,
I would say part of the problem is in the Google and Facebook of this world.
First, because their business model is based on the number of clicks or likes. And what better than creating polarities and divisions to increase the number of clicks.
Second, because they spy on people. Here is how I am ordering a book on Amazon now.
I open up several windows: Chrome, Chrome in private browsing, Firefox, Opera with a VPN and Tor, the most secure with Duck Duck Go browsing. Not logged into my account yet.
I get different prices!!! Why? The same book at the library is the same price for everyone. But not with Amazon because there is an algorithm under your name (once they identify you) that can predict how much you are willing to pay and they adjust the price according to your country, the availability of the book, the season and YOU. How much you are willing to pay. I end up picking up the best price. And I am not using apps which can track the price changes on Amazon.