I can still recall my surprise when a book by evolutionary biologist Peter Lawrence titled The Making of a Fly came to be priced on Amazon at $23,698,655.93 (plus $3.99 shipping). While my colleagues around the world must have become rather depressed that an academic book could achieve such a feat, the steep price was actually the result of algorithms feeding off each other and spiralling out of control. It turns out, it wasn't just sales staff being creative: algorithms were calling the shots.
* This article was originally published here
