Algorithmic Modernity: Mechanizing Thought and Action, 1500-2000

Description

Algorithms have been transforming human society long before the advent of computing. Yet they continue to exist in relative invisibility despite their presence behind many of our modern social interactions. The rhetoric of algorithmic neutrality is more alive than ever, and algorithms are often depicted as obvious and unproblematic—without context and without history. Algorithmic Modernity draws together the history of mathematics and intellectual history to convey the enduring global history of the algorithm as a computational tool, epistemic ideal, and rhetorical figure alongside the ascendance of modernity. Through historical reconstructions of relevant thinkers and cultural phenomena over the last five hundred years, this collection of essays reveals how algorithms became the standard method for solving problems from the early inclusion of algorithms in Newton's formation of calculus to their later influence in the New Deal economy. Together, these essays create an informed history for readers interested in the social and cultural implications of today's pervasive digital algorithm. Featuring experts in mathematics, history, and computing, Algorithmic Modernity presents a multi-faceted exploration of the genealogy of algorithmic thinking in modern times. Introduction Morgan G. Ames and Massimo Mazzotti Chapter 1: Algorithm and Demonstration in the Sixteenth-Century Ars Magna Abram Kaplan Chapter 2: "Some call it Arsmetrike, and some Awgryme": Misprision and Precision in Algorithmic Thinking and Learning in 1543 and Beyond Michael J. Barany Chapter 3: The Orderly Universe: How the Calculus Became an Algorithm Amir Alexander Chapter 4: The Algorithmic Enlightenment J.B. Shank Chapter 5: Capitalism by Algorithm: Numbers for the Innumerate in the 18th and 19th Century Atlantic World Caitlin C. Rosenthal Chapter 6: Material Mathematics: British Algebra as Algorithmic Mathematics Kevin Lambert Chapter 7: "For Computing is Our Duty": Algorithmic Workers, Servants, and Women at the Harvard Observatory Andrew Fiss Chapter 8: Seeds of Control: Sugar Beets, Control Algorithms, and New Deal Data Politics Theodora Dryer Chapter 9: Inference Rituals: Algorithms and the History of Statistics Christopher J. Phillips Chapter 10: Decision Trees, Random Forests, and the Genealogy of the Black Box Matthew L. Jones Index