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The theory that would not die [electronic resource] : how Bayes' rule cracked the enigma code, hunted down Russian submarines, and emerged triumphant from two centuries of controversy / Sharon Bertsch McGrayne.

By: McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch.
Contributor(s): ebrary, Inc.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, 2011Description: xiii, 320 p.Subject(s): Bayesian statistical decision theory -- HistoryGenre/Form: Electronic books.DDC classification: 519.5/42 Online resources: An electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web; click to view
Contents:
pt. 1. Enlightenment and the Anti-Bayesian reaction -- pt. 2. Second World War era -- pt. 3. The glorious revival -- pt. 4. To prove its worth -- pt. 5. Victory 211.
Summary: "Bayes' rule appears to be a straightforward, one-line theorem: by updating our initial beliefs with objective new information, we get a new and improved belief. To its adherents, it is an elegant statement about learning from experience. To its opponents, it is subjectivity run amok. In the first-ever account of Bayes' rule for general readers, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores this controversial theorem and the human obsessions surrounding it. She traces its discovery by an amateur mathematician in the 1740s through its development into roughly its modern form by French scientist Pierre Simon Laplace. She reveals why respected statisticians rendered it professionally taboo for 150 years--at the same time that practitioners relied on it to solve crises involving great uncertainty and scanty information, even breaking Germany's Enigma code during World War II, and explains how the advent of off-the-shelf computer technology in the 1980s proved to be a game-changer. Today, Bayes' rule is used everywhere from DNA de-coding to Homeland Security. Drawing on primary source material and interviews with statisticians and other scientists, The Theory That Would Not Die is the riveting account of how a seemingly simple theorem ignited one of the greatest controversies of all time"-- Provided by publisher.
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Item type Current location Collection Call number URL Copy number Status Date due Item holds
E-book E-book IUKL Library
Subscripti http://site.ebrary.com/lib/kliuc/Doc?id=10468995 1 Available
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references and index.

pt. 1. Enlightenment and the Anti-Bayesian reaction -- pt. 2. Second World War era -- pt. 3. The glorious revival -- pt. 4. To prove its worth -- pt. 5. Victory 211.

"Bayes' rule appears to be a straightforward, one-line theorem: by updating our initial beliefs with objective new information, we get a new and improved belief. To its adherents, it is an elegant statement about learning from experience. To its opponents, it is subjectivity run amok. In the first-ever account of Bayes' rule for general readers, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores this controversial theorem and the human obsessions surrounding it. She traces its discovery by an amateur mathematician in the 1740s through its development into roughly its modern form by French scientist Pierre Simon Laplace. She reveals why respected statisticians rendered it professionally taboo for 150 years--at the same time that practitioners relied on it to solve crises involving great uncertainty and scanty information, even breaking Germany's Enigma code during World War II, and explains how the advent of off-the-shelf computer technology in the 1980s proved to be a game-changer. Today, Bayes' rule is used everywhere from DNA de-coding to Homeland Security. Drawing on primary source material and interviews with statisticians and other scientists, The Theory That Would Not Die is the riveting account of how a seemingly simple theorem ignited one of the greatest controversies of all time"-- Provided by publisher.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2011. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries.

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