One of the world's pioneers in the development of computer science offers a mesmerizing history of computers.
Computers are everywhere today--at work, in the bank, in artist's studios, sometimes even in our pockets--yet they remain to many of us objects of irreducible mystery. How can today's computers perform such a bewildering variety of tasks if computing is just glorified arithmetic? The answer, as Martin Davis lucidly illustrates, lies in the fact that computers are essentially engines of logic. Their hardware and software embody concepts developed over centuries by logicians such as Leibniz, Boole, and Godel, culminating in the amazing insights of Alan Turing. The Universal Computer traces the development of these concepts by exploring with captivating detail the lives and work of the geniuses who first formulated them. Readers will come away with a revelatory understanding of how and why computers work and how the algorithms within them came to be."synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Martin Davis, a fluent interpreter of mathematics and philosophy, locates the source of this knowledge in the work of the remarkable German thinker G. W. Leibniz, who, among other accomplishments, was a distinguished jurist, mining engineer, and diplomat but found time to invent a contraption called the "Leibniz wheel," a sort of calculator that could carry out the four basic operations of arithmetic. Leibniz subsequently developed a method of calculation called the calculus raciocinator, an innovation his successor George Boole extended by, in Davis's words, "turning logic into algebra." (Boole emerges as a deeply sympathetic character in Davis's pages, rather than as the dry-as-dust figure of other histories. He explained, Davis reports, that he had turned to mathematics because he had so little money as a student to buy books, and mathematics books provided more value for the money because they took so long to work through.) Davis traces the development of this logic, essential to the advent of "thinking machines," through the workshops and studies of such thinkers as Georg Cantor, Kurt Gödel, and Alan Turing, each of whom puzzled out just a little bit more of the workings of the world--and who, in the bargain, made the present possible. --Gregory McNamee
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 4.49
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # mon0000230296
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0393047857
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. 1st. Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! UPS shipping for most packages, (Priority Mail for AK/HI/APO/PO Boxes). Seller Inventory # 000502237N
Book Description Hardback or Cased Book. Condition: New. The Universal Computer: The Road from Leibnitz to Turing 1.26. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780393047851
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABLIING23Feb2215580176042
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. This item is printed on demand. Seller Inventory # 9780393047851
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # I-9780393047851
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 592345-n
Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0393047857-2-1
Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover0393047857