FAQ
Frequently
Asked Questions
Everything you might want to know about the book.
About the book
Content and approach
It’s an intellectual history of how language, time, and information braided together across centuries to produce the world we now inhabit — one in which prediction has become infrastructure. The book traces this convergence from ancient grammar and ritual calendars to modern AI and recommendation systems.
AI is a major part of the story, but the book is not a technical guide to machine learning. It traces the much longer intellectual history that made AI thinkable — from ancient grammar to probability theory to information compression — and asks what it means that prediction has become infrastructure.
Not at all. The book’s argument is that we cannot step outside quantification, and we should not wish to. But we can choose what we quantify, how we interpret what numbers can and cannot say, and how we keep human meaning alive inside systems that prefer the thin and the countable.
Most books about data begin in the 20th century. This one begins with language itself — with the grammar that made time shareable. It argues that the predictive present is not merely a technological condition but a cultural and linguistic one, built across centuries of standardization, quantification, and formalization.
Reading
Accessibility and audience
No. The book is written for intellectually curious general readers. When a small amount of mathematics clarifies the story, it is included in short “windows” — not to prove, but to illuminate. No specialized training is required beyond patience for careful distinctions.
Anyone interested in the history of ideas, linguistics, AI, the politics of quantification, media studies, or simply making sense of the present moment. If you’ve enjoyed books by Yuval Noah Harari, James Gleick, or Jill Lepore, this book is for you.
The final length will be confirmed closer to publication. The book is intended to be substantial but readable — a work of narrative nonfiction, not an academic treatise.
Availability
Publication and formats
Publication details will be announced on this site. Pre-order to be notified as soon as a release date is confirmed.
Format details, including audiobook availability, will be announced closer to publication. Follow this page for updates.
Pre-order links will be available on this site once the book’s publication details are finalized. You can register your interest now by visiting the pre-order page.
Edition details will be confirmed closer to publication. Check back here for the latest information on available formats.