The Advent of the Algorithm by David Berlinski, Harcourt, $28,
ISBN 0151003386
“ONCE I saw the Crown Prince Rudolf hurrying away from court in his fiacre,
his coachman Bratfisch whistling, `Wo bleibt die alte Zeit?’ while
somewhere to the east of the city, in a country castle, his mistress waited,
sloe-eyed, peach-lipped, a single rose pinned to her auburn hair.”
Ugh! Multiply this passage a hundredfold and you’ll have an idea of how it
feels to wade through David Berlinski’s The Advent of the Algorithm.
What have narcissistic digressions and self-indulgent prose to do with
algorithms? I became so exasperated…
