Optimal Illusions: The False Promise of Optimization
Language: English
Published by Riverhead Books, 2023
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Wonder Book, Frederick, MD, U.S.A.Wonder Book
AbeBooks seller since November 1, 1997
Condition: Used - As new
US$ 6.99
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Like New condition. Like New dust jacket. A near perfect copy that may have very minor cosmetic defects.
Seller Inventory # H05K-01452
- Title
- Optimal Illusions: The False Promise of Optimization
- Author
- Krumme, Coco
- Publisher
- Riverhead Books
- Publication year
- 2023
- Condition
- As New
- Dust jacket
- Dust Jacket Included
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0593331117
- ISBN 13
- 9780593331118
Optimization is the driving principle of our modern world. We now can manufacture, transport, and organize things more cheaply and faster than ever. Optimized models underlie everything from airline schedules to dating site matches. We strive for efficiency in our daily lives, obsessed with productivity and optimal performance. How did a mathematical concept take on such outsize cultural shape? And what is lost when efficiency is gained?
Optimal Illusions traces the fascinating history of optimization from its roots in America’s founding principles to its modern manifestations, found in colorful stories of oil tycoons, wildlife ecologists, Silicon Valley technologists, lifestyle gurus, sugar beet farmers, and poker players. Optimization is now deeply embedded in the technologies and assumptions that have come to comprise not only our material reality but what we make of it.
Coco Krumme’s work in mathematical modeling has made her acutely aware of optimization’s overreach. Streamlined systems are less resilient and more at risk of failure. They limit our options and narrow our perspectives. The malaise of living in an optimized society can feel profoundly inhumane. Optimal Illusions exposes the sizable bargains we have made in the name of optimization and asks us to consider what comes next.
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About the Author
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Wonder Book
Frederick, MD, U.S.A.
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With 3 stores less than 1 hour outside the DC/Metropolitan area (1 in Gaithersburg, 1 in Frederick and 1 in Hagerstown, MD), we have the largest selection of books in the tri-state area. Wonder Book and Video has been in business since 1980 and online since 1997. We have over 1 Million books for sale on our website and another 1 Million books for sale in our 3 locations. Items on Abe are not necessarily in stock at our retail locations. Please do not call the stores to place orders for Abe Books sales. We have a very active online inventory and as such, we can receive multiple orders for the same item. We fill those orders on a first come first serve basis, but will refund promptly any items that are out of stock. Since 1980 it has always been about the books. ALL kinds of books from 95 cent children's paperbacks to five figure rare and collectibles. A merging of the old and new is where we started, and it is where we are today. Our retail stores have always been places where a reader can rush in looking for a title needed for a term paper that is due the next day, or where bibliophiles can get lost "in the stacks" for as long as they wish. In 2002 USAToday recognized us as "1 of 10 Great Old Bookstores", and we have been featured in numerous other newspaper and TV stories including Washington Post and CSpan. Members ABAA, ILAB.…
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Wonder Book
Wonder Book and Video, 1550 Tilco Drive
Frederick, MD U.S.A. 21704
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