The Universal Machine: From the Dawn of Computing to Digital Consciousness - Softcover

Watson, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 364228101X ISBN 13: 9783642281013

Publisher: Copernicus, 2012

Synopsis

Question: who invented the computer?

Hint: not Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

Would you be surprised to know that the computer was conceived in Victorian times?

The Universal Machine's history is as colorful as the people who created it. They include an aristocratic lady whose talents and lifestyle were quite scandalous at the time, the tragic Alan Turing, whose genius helped win WWII, and a rag-tag bunch of dropouts who not only shaped the PC, but gave birth to the counter-culture that drives Silicon Valley today. To understand the pivotal role that computers play in our lives, you must get to know these people to see how their innovative thinking changed our lives irrevocably, and made and lost fortunes overnight.

This book also tracks some of the more intriguing (if not baffling) developments, from hacking to social networking, and demonstrates how the computer has become central to everything we do.

So, take the plunge. Learn how the Analytical Engine became a Universal Machine, and shrank from a monster that required a room of its own, to something that fits into your pocket and one day soon will be part of you.

About this title

From the Author

I passionately believe that the computer is like no other invention in human history. As Alan Turing, its inventor, realized in the 1930s, the computer is a Universal Machine - capable of doing any task for which it is programed.  I thought I knew the history of computing when I started writing this book, but I learnt so much in the process and got to know some really fascinating people along the way. I therefore invite you to take the plunge and learn more about the history of computing and the people that made it possible.    Once the history is out of the way we've got to consider the future, since computers will have an even greater role to play there. Although I work in AI I guess I'm too focused on my team's immediate goals to often look at the big picture, which writing this book made me do. In the last two chapters you'll learn how you're going to become even more dependent on computers and how, one day, computers and humans may become one and the same.

From the Back Cover

The computer unlike other inventions is universal; you can use a computer for many tasks: writing, composing music, designing buildings, creating movies, inhabiting virtual worlds, communicating... 
This popular science history isn't just about technology but introduces the pioneers: Babbage, Turing, Apple's Wozniak and Jobs, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Zuckerberg. This story is about people and the changes computers have caused. In the future ubiquitous computing, AI, quantum and molecular computing could even make us immortal. The computer has been a radical invention. In less than a single human life computers are transforming economies and societies like no human invention before.

Edition details

• Publisher: Copernicus
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 364228101X
• ISBN 13: 9783642281013
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 367