Advent of the Algorithm

Listener Reviews

1. 1.0(1)

   Self indulgent, slow and hackneyed info-tainment.

   Any additional comments?

   Because Berlininsky can't be troubled to come up with original metaphors from one book to another, I feel no reservation at all to copy and paiste this review from another book of his. They seem to fit all of his works very well As if David Berlinski hid 6 pages of information at random intervals within a thesaurus, "The advent of the algorithm" closely resembles a sophomore's expository writing assignment that desperately pads his under researched book with monotone landscapes and irrelevant details, in what only can be described as a half hearted attempt to fill the required number of pages. Every chapter is a tedious forest of recycled clichés and tired metaphors lifted directly from his other books. Lacking all restraint, he launches himself shamelessly into excruciatingly long accounts of the furniture, the shape and size of professor's heads, the bridges in Prague, the gestures and emotions of people not present to hear his arguments, and the smells that may or may not have filled the rooms of various historical figures. "They shine like diamonds on a jeweler's black velvet cloth" to quote Berlinski from both "A Tour of Calculus" and "The Advent of the Algorithm" I blame both the author and the editor for this extravagant waist of print space and my time.

   Kaylyn Silver · April 11, 2019