Turing's cathedral : the origins of the digital universe / George Dyson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dyson, George, 1953-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computers--History.

Computers.

History.

Turing machines.

Computable functions.

Random access memory.

Von Neumann, John, 1903-1957.

Von Neumann, John.

Turing, Alan, 1912-1954.

Turing, Alan.

Physical Description:

xxii, 401 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Pantheon Books, 2012.

Summary:

In this book the author re-creates the scenes of focused experimentation, incredible mathematical insight, and pure creative genius that gave us computers, digital television, modern genetics, models of stellar evolution, in other words, computer code. In the 1940s and '50s, a group of eccentric geniuses, led by John von Neumann, gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their joint project was the realization of the theoretical universal machine, an idea that had been put forth by mathematician Alan Turing. Their work would break the distinction between numbers that mean things and numbers that do things. They achieved unprecedented success in both weather prediction and nuclear weapons design, while tackling problems ranging from the evolution of viruses to the evolution of stars. This group of brilliant engineers worked in isolation, almost entirely independent from industry and the traditional academic community. But because they relied exclusively on government funding, the government wanted its share of the results: the computer that they built also led directly to the hydrogen bomb. The author has uncovered a wealth of new material about this project, and in bringing the story of these men and women and their ideas to life, he shows how the crucial advancements that dominated twentieth-century technology emerged from one computer in one laboratory, where the digital universe as we know it was born.

"Legendary historian and philosopher of science George Dyson vividly re-creates the scenes of focused experimentation, incredible mathematical insight, and pure creative genius that gave us computers, digital television, modern genetics, models of stellar evolution--in other words, computer code"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Principal characters

1953

Olden Farm

Veblen's circle

Neumann János

MANIAC

Fuld 219

6J6

V-40

Cyclogenesis

Monte Carlo

Ulam's demons

Barricelli's universe

Turing's cathedral

Engineer's dreams

Theory of self-reproducing automata

Mach 9

The tale of the big computer

The thirty-ninth step.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-377) and index.

ISBN:

9780375422775

0375422773

OCLC:

745979775