Quentin Meillassoux's new book revisits a rather well-worn modernist artefact, Stéphane Mallarmé's epic poem AThrowofDiceWillNeverAbolishChance. Whilst the continental philosopher proposes to unveil the poem's secret code for the first time, Michael Reid discovers the real surprise at the heart of the book to be much more incongruous and bizarre
As the financial crisis fastens its grip ever tighter around the means of human and natural survival, the age of the algorithm has hit full stride. This phase-shift has been a long time coming of course, and was undoubtedly as much a cause of the crisis as its effect, with self-propelling algorithmic power replacing human labour and judgement and creating event fields far below the threshold of human perception and responsiveness.
