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Darwin Among the Machines.(Review)

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From: Contemporary Review
Date: 19990301
Author:Arthur, Chris

George Dyson. Allen Lane, The Penguin Press. [pounds]20.00. ISBN 0-713-99205-0.

'A man's style in writing,' Samuel Butler observes in his notebooks, 'should be like his dress, it should attract as little attention as possible'. George Dyson has drawn heavily on Butler's writing, but has unfortunately ignored this piece of advice. Although in many respects Darwin Among the Machines is an interesting book, it is marred by three stylistic features that tend to distract the reader's attention from the main ideas being advanced.

First, there is a tendency to rely too much on ...

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