The term algorithm is used much more now than when the 9th century Persian mathematician from whom it derives, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, devised methods for solving first and second degree equations. The reasons are clear: now there is more data and more computing power. But there have always been algorithms, which are nothing more than a set of instructions aimed at executing a task. The recipe for a chocolate cake or a Valencian paella are algorithms. The way to light a fire with two sticks is an algorithm. The hunting technique used by some groups of killer whales, when they expel air while spinning under their prey to catch them in a cylinder of bubbles, is an algorithm, in this case generated and transmitted in a pre-linguistic way. So are the nuptial dances of the bird of paradise or lullabies.

Machines, although it may be hard to believe, are subject to moral and ethical principles. And the more sophisticated they are, which implies more degrees of freedom and more autonomy, the higher the ethical component. This is the case of robots and artificial intelligence. To a large extent, whether these principles are respected depends on their programming, that is, on the algorithms that are created so that the machines perform the function for which they are designed. In other words, human intervention in their conception. The study of these ethical rules and principles, which goes far beyond what Isaac Asimov defined in 1950 as the fact that in no way could a robot harm a human, is called roboethics. A discipline that is growing with each passing day and that has algorithm programming at its core.