Google's famous algorithm can't be deployed to search through books because they don't link to each other in the way that webpages do. There is no perfect BookRank corollary for PageRank.

Algorithms may entrench our biases, homogenize and flatten culture, and exploit and suppress the vulnerable and marginalized. But these aren’t completely inscrutable systems or inevitable outcomes.

An algorithm inspired by the way that a species of beetle changes colour to communicate with its peers and predators solves engineering problems faster than a range of previous approaches. The ...