Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers / John MacCormick ; with a foreword by Chris Bishop.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacCormick, John, 1972- author.

Series:

Princeton science library.

Princeton Science Library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computer science.

Computer algorithms.

Artificial intelligence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (232 pages).

Place of Publication:

Oxfordshire : Princeton University Press, 2020.

Summary:

Nine revolutionary algorithms that power our computers and smartphonesEvery day, we use our computers to perform remarkable feats. A simple web search picks out a handful of relevant needles from the world's biggest haystack. Uploading a photo to Facebook transmits millions of pieces of information over numerous error-prone network links, yet somehow a perfect copy of the photo arrives intact. Without even knowing it, we use public-key cryptography to transmit secret information like credit card numbers, and we use digital signatures to verify the identity of the websites we visit. How do our computers perform these tasks with such ease? John MacCormick answers this question in language anyone can understand, using vivid examples to explain the fundamental tricks behind nine computer algorithms that power our PCs, laptops, and smartphones.

Contents:

What are the extraordinary ideas computers use every day?

Search engine indexing, finding needles in the world's biggest haystack

PageRank, the technology that launched Google

Public key cryptography, sending secrets on a postcard

Error correcting codes, mistakes that fix themselves

Pattern recognition, learning from experience

Data compression, something for nothing

Databases, the quest for consistency

Digital signatures, who really wrote this software?

What is computable?

More genius at your fingertips?

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-691-20905-7

OCLC:

1193126534