What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing

by Ed Finn

Book Overview

The gap between theoretical ideas and messy reality, as seen in Neal Stephenson, Adam Smith, and Star Trek.

We depend on--we believe in--algorithms to help us get a ride, choose which book to buy, execute a mathematical proof. It's as if we think of code as a magic spell, an incantation to reveal what we need to know and even what we want. Humans have always believed that certain invocations--the marriage vow, the shaman's curse--do...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262035928
• ISBN13: 9780262035927
• Release Date: January 2014
• Publisher: Mit Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher