How Optimization took over the world and the urgent case for a new approach Optimization is the driving principle of our modern world.
Optimal Illusions exposes the sizable bargains we have made in the name of Optimization and asks us to consider what comes next..
The malaise of living in an optimized society can feel profoundly inhumane.
They limit our options and narrow our perspectives.
Streamlined systems are less resilient and more at risk of failure.
Coco Krumme\'s work in mathematical modeling has made her acutely aware of optimization\'s overreach.
Optimization is now deeply embedded in the technologies and assumptions that have come to comprise not only our material reality but what we make of it.
How did a mathematical concept take on such outsize cultural shape? And what is lost when efficiency is gained? Optimal Illusions traces the fascinating history of Optimization from its roots in America\'s founding principles to its modern manifestations, found in colorful stories of oil tycoons, wildlife ecologists, Silicon Valley technologists, lifestyle gurus, sugar beet farmers, and poker players.
We strive for efficiency in our daily lives, obsessed with productivity and Optimal performance.
Optimized models underlie everything from airline schedules to dating site matches.
We now can manufacture, transport, and organize things more cheaply and faster than ever.
How Optimization took over the world and the urgent case for a new approach Optimization is the driving principle of our modern world
