Algorithms and Hive Brain

I'm convinced my iPod can read my mind.
(Yeah, I'm back on this, maybe I should finish that dumb story over this long holiday weekend.)

I don't know exactly how the shuffle algorithm works, my guess is that it gives weight to artists/songs that are frequently listened to. Maybe songs that I skip get a negative weight to them. Beyond all that though, I think it knows me.

I was just listening to Living for the City by Stevie Wonder and thinking about how my friend B.'s band used to cover that song. And how B. liked to sing that the legs beneath sister's short skirt were pretty rather than sturdy.

Next song up?
A recording of I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine/Too Far Gone/Tomorrow is a Long, Long Time that my friend B. made in college. It was not his band, just him so the iPod didn't see two artists who did Living in the City and pulled a different song by the second artist.

I need to do a research project on the Shuffle. Luckily, a quick Google search of "ipod shuffle algorithm" reveals a whole slew of sites by math and computer science dorks who know a lot more about this stuff than me. They all seem more interested in randomness and whether all songs will be played before one song will be played twice. I have not seen anything yet about the development over time of human-iPod hive mind communication though. I'm going to send my iPod mental hints to load the Odetta, Nick Drake and Elvis covers of Tomorrow is a Long Time. I love the Rod Stewart and feel a "compare-athon" coming on. According to Wikipedia there are also covers by Harry Belafonte, Nickel Creek, Dion, Chris Hillman, Ian and Sylvia, Joan Baez,The Kingston Trio,Sandy Denny, Danielle Howle, The Silkie, Nationalteatern, Rosalie Sorrels, Judy Collins, Dream City Film Club, and The Black Family.