Paperback. Pub Date: 2010 Pages: 208 in Publisher: Basic In the early seventeenth century. The outcome of something as simple as a dice roll was consigned to the realm of the unknowable chance. Mathematicians largely agreed that it was impossible to predicting svm - predict the probability of an occurrence. Then. in 1654. Blaise Pascal wrote to Pierre de Fermat explaining that he had discovered how to calculate risk. The two collaborated to develop what is now known as probability theorya concept that allows us to think rationally about decisions and events . In The Unfinished Game. Keith Devlin masterfully chronicles Pascal and Fermats mathematical eakthrough. connecting a centuries-old discovery with its remarkable impact on the modern world.