The Advent of the Algorithm

by Berlinski, David

• ISBN13: 9780156013918
• ISBN10: 0156013916
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-05-03
• Publisher: HARPER

Summary

Simply put, an algorithm is a set of instructions-it's the code that makes computers run. A basic idea that proved elusive for hundreds of years and bent the minds of the greatest thinkers in the world, the algorithm is what made the modern world possible. Without the algorithm, there would have been no computer, no Internet, no virtual reality, no e-mail, or any other technological advance that we rely on every day. In The Advent of the Algorithm, David Berlinski combines science, history, and math to explain and explore the intriguing story of how the algorithm was finally discovered by a succession of mathematicians and logicians, and how this paved the way for the digital age. Beginning with Leibniz and culminating in the middle of the twentieth century with the groundbreaking work of Gouml;del and Turing, The Advent of the Algorithm is an epic tale told with clarity and imaginative brilliance.

Author Biography

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 and Forbes ASAP. He lives in Paris.

Table of Contents

Preface The Digital Bureaucrat	xi
Introduction The Jeweler's Velvet	xv
The Marketplace of Schemes	1	(20)
Under the Eye of Doubt	21	(25)
Bruno the Fastidious	46	(18)
Cargoload and Crack-Up	64	(32)
Hilbert Takes Command	96	(20)
Godel in Vienna	116	(30)
The Dangerous Discipline	146	(9)
Flight into Abstraction	155	(26)
The Imaginary Machine	181	(17)
Postscript	198	(7)
The Peacock of Reason	205	(10)
Time Against Time	215	(34)
An Artifact of Mind	249	(26)
A World of Many Gods	275	(31)
The Cross of Words	306	(26)
Epilogue The Idea of Order at Key West	332	(3)
Acknowledgments	335	(2)
Index	337