Rating: 
Summary: An intellectual and spiritual adventure
Review: Quirky and quixotic, but often illuminating, this charming monograph brings to life the great thinkers who struggled to understand what may well be the most monumental achievement of the human intellect, the algorithm.Those expecting a detailed or formal description of what an algorithm is will be disappointed. It's not that kind of book. Those seeking insight into the power and limitations of mathematics and logic will find much to contemplate. It is that kind of book. Not for everyone, but a treat for those who esteem both mind and soul.
Rating: 
Summary: The Advent of My Ego
Review: The only good thing about this book is that it cost [$] and even at that it is too expensive. The book is more about the author's sexual prowess than about the idea of an Algorithm. Between somewhat cogent biographies of the major 19th and 20th century contributors to the subject of numerical analysis and information theory, the author included short vignettes about either some personal or fictional experience that had nothing to do with the subject at hand. This was most annoying and wasteful of the reader's time. The author failed to communicate that he really had any real understanding of the subject matter. The only idea that I found somewhat developed and interesting was that the algorithm is a creation of the mind, that it has no substance. It is a process and a process only exists because there is a mind to comprehend it. This is the only jewel in the book and one that the author fails to develop more fully. Even in his discussion of numerical analysis and information theory the author leaves the reader yearning for more but there is no more to be had. I was particularly disappointed by his cursory survey of Shannon and his contribution to information theory and the relationship of information theory to entropy and probability. One of the vignettes in the book describes a breakfast meeting with the author's agent and his publicist. In the meeting they complain about the manuscript's incomprehensibility and urge the author to be more understanding of his readers. It is advice that he failed to take and should have.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than reviews suggest; background knowlege useful
Review: While the writing is from time to time over the top, the book is very enjoyable. What I appreciate most about the book is its treatment of the actual philosophy behind the development of the algorithm. This apparently is what many previous reviewers dislike. They might be used to books like Men of Mathematics or The Lady Tasting Tea - books that merely provide a brief description of the development of the topic accompanied by some life facts of the developers. Hence, this book is more of a philosophy book than a history book. And for those of us who would rather read a philosophy book than a history book, this book is a breath of fresh air. Reading of the book is helped, however, by a background in both logic and mathematics. Still, the book gets four stars from me as Berlinski would have done well to simplify his writing style.
Rating:
Summary: Not for a layman
Review: You need to be a mathematics major to understand the book. If you don't have such background, don't try it. I have to throw it away after the fifth chapter.
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