The Advent of the Algorithm

The Idea That Rules the World

Berlinski, David, 1942-

Book - 1999

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Houghton

The algorithm is just code, but it makes things happen. It's the set of abstract, detailed instructions that makes computers run. Any programmer can invent a new algorithm-and many have become millionaires doing just that. Computers, the Internet, virtual reality-our world is being transformed before our eyes, all because some quirky logicians and mathematicians followed the dream of ultimate abstraction and invented the algorithm. Beginning with Leibniz and culminating in the middle of this century with the work of little-known geniuses and eccentrics like Gödel and Turing, David Berlinski tells this epic tale with clarity and imaginative brilliance. You don't have to be a programmer or a math buff to enjoy his book. All you have to do is be fascinated by the greatest innovation of the twentieth century.

Baker & Taylor
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.

Harcourt Publishing

Baker
& Taylor
Describes the invention of the algorithm, first theorized by Leibniz, and the dramatic implications of this mathematical discovery on the development of computer technology and the working of DNA