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Language and the Rise of the Algorithm
A wide-ranging history of the algorithm.
Bringing together the histories of mathematics, computer science, and linguistic thought, Language and the Rise of the Algorithm reveals how recent developments in artificial intelligence are reopening an issue that troubled mathematicians well before the computer How do you draw the line between computational rules and the complexities of making systems comprehensible to people? By attending to this question, we come to see that the modern idea of the algorithm is implicated in a long history of attempts to maintain a disciplinary boundary separating technical knowledge from the languages people speak day to day.
Here Jeffrey M. Binder offers a compelling tour of four visions of universal computation that addressed this issue in very different G. W. Leibniz’s calculus ratiocinator; a universal algebra scheme Nicolas de Condorcet designed during the French Revolution; George Boole’s nineteenth-century logic system; and the early programming language ALGOL, short for algorithmic language . These episodes show that symbolic computation has repeatedly become entangled in debates about the nature of communication. Machine learning, in its increasing dependence on words, erodes the line between technical and everyday language, revealing the urgent stakes underlying this boundary.
The idea of the algorithm is a levee holding back the social complexity of language, and it is about to break. This book is about the flood that inspired its construction.
Bringing together the histories of mathematics, computer science, and linguistic thought, Language and the Rise of the Algorithm reveals how recent developments in artificial intelligence are reopening an issue that troubled mathematicians well before the computer How do you draw the line between computational rules and the complexities of making systems comprehensible to people? By attending to this question, we come to see that the modern idea of the algorithm is implicated in a long history of attempts to maintain a disciplinary boundary separating technical knowledge from the languages people speak day to day.
Here Jeffrey M. Binder offers a compelling tour of four visions of universal computation that addressed this issue in very different G. W. Leibniz’s calculus ratiocinator; a universal algebra scheme Nicolas de Condorcet designed during the French Revolution; George Boole’s nineteenth-century logic system; and the early programming language ALGOL, short for algorithmic language . These episodes show that symbolic computation has repeatedly become entangled in debates about the nature of communication. Machine learning, in its increasing dependence on words, erodes the line between technical and everyday language, revealing the urgent stakes underlying this boundary.
The idea of the algorithm is a levee holding back the social complexity of language, and it is about to break. This book is about the flood that inspired its construction.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published November 25, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 21, 2023
This book should've been called algebra with a touch of language. It's illuminating in parts; the coda, about GPT3, is especially relevant to my world as a Content Designer working in tech. But it's not a great study in storytelling. Language nerds will find the emphasis on algebra for the majority of the book heavy going, and it's organized in such a dry way, by centuries, each of which is 10% of the book. I lived for the human moments, like when Ada Lovelace puts in an appearance, or when Mill reconciles the utilitarian and creative ideas of Bentham and Coleridge.
January 27, 2025
This book could have been much better. Jeffrey Binder has done all the research and has a firm overview of the subject, but somehow falls short. It appeared to lack the nudge of an experienced editor.
There are plenty of fascinating characters and a rich vein to mine, from symbolism and logic to computer programming and the development of AI, so it is worth dipping into, but overall, the buffet is unsatisfactory.
I gave the book three stars.
There are plenty of fascinating characters and a rich vein to mine, from symbolism and logic to computer programming and the development of AI, so it is worth dipping into, but overall, the buffet is unsatisfactory.
I gave the book three stars.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews