The Advent of the Algorithm: The Idea that Rules the World - Hardcover

Berlinski, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151003386 ISBN 13: 9780151003389

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000

Synopsis

A history of the development of the computer focuses on the people whose innovative mathematical work in algorithms and codes made the computer a reality, discussing its beginnings with Liebnitz and profiling unsung geniuses like G÷del and Turing. 50,000 first printing. First serial, Harpers. BOMC.

About this title

About the Author

David Berlinski is the author of three novels and four works of nonfiction, most recently the bestselling A Tour of the Calculus. Berlinski received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and is a regular contributor to Commentary; his essays on Darwinism and the Big Bang have become famous; he also writes for Forbes ASAP. He lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

Berlinski's successful A Tour of the Calculus displayed his spectacular talent for explaining math and its various real-world consequences. This hefty follow-up explores what Berlinski considers "the second great scientific idea of the West. There is no third." Calculus gave us modern physics, but the algorithm gave us--is still giving us--the computer (or, more precisely, the computer program). In short, densely intertwined, lyrically constructed chapters, Berlinski describes the discoveries of major algorithmic thinkers. We hear of Gottfried von Leibniz, one of the founders of formal logic; of Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert and Bertrand Russell, who set out to draw up formal, mathematical criteria for truth; of Kurt G?del, who proved that it couldn't be done; of computer pioneer, code breaker and gay martyr Alan Turing; of programs, undecidability, DNA and entropy. We see equations and graphs, but we also hear tales from Isaac Bashevis Singer and bizarre anecdotes of Berlinski's own travels. A novelist (The Body Shop) as well as a mathematician, Berlinski has composed energetic, intertwined tales that make it nearly impossible for readers, once drawn in, to lose interest or to get lost among flying abstractions. (He may well attract the same readers who gravitated, 20 years ago, to Douglas Hofstadter's G?del, Escher, Bach, though the books' personalities and prose styles have little in common.) Although not perfect--the book can be hyperbolic or too aphoristic and digressive for those who just want to learn about math (or the philosophy of computing)--this captivating volume is nevertheless an uncommon achievement of both style and substance. Agent, Susan Ginsburg; author tour. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Put precisely, an algorithm "is an effective procedure, a way of getting something done in a finite number of discrete steps." One can also say that "an algorithm, speaking loosely, is a set of rules, a recipe, a prescription for action, a guide, a linked and controlled injunction, an adjuration, a code, an effort made to throw a complex verbal shawl over life's chattering chaos." Thus Berlinski, who has taught mathematical logic but now devotes himself to writing, introduces his deep and instructive account of the algorithm's development and its role in modern life. He does not shirk the mathematics of his subject. Although he strives to put its points clearly, the nonmathematical reader will still have to lean into them. But the same reader will find much rewarding information about mathematics, famous and not so famous mathematicians, and philosophy.

EDITORS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

In his newest work, which complements his A Tour of the Calculus (Pantheon, 1996), professional writer and sometime mathematician Berlinski traces some of the highlights in the development of modern mathematical logic and shows how they have converged on the algorithm--which may be defined as a prescription for carrying through a computation in a finite series of steps. Berlinski compares and contrasts the triumph of the algorithm with the earlier successful career of calculus. His writing style is vivid and dynamic--almost too much so. However, he succeeds in carrying his readers through the basic notation of mathematical logic in a fashion that should work well even for lay readers. Thumbnail biographical sketches of several major logicians and several fragments of fiction further enliven this zesty and unusual book. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
-Jack W. Weigel, formerly with Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0151003386
• ISBN 13: 9780151003389
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416