Down for the Count

The Advent of the Algorithm: The Idea That Rules the World, by David Berlinski (Harcourt, 345 pp., $28)

In the copyright page of David Berlinski’s new book, an inconspicuous disclaimer informs the reader that while this is a work of scholarship, “the author has woven stories, involving imagined people and incidents, into the text, the better to enable the reader to enjoy the technical discussions. Or to endure them.”