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Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines (1971) edited by B.V. Bowden Pitman ISBN: none (because in 1971 the future didn?t need barcodes) Condition: Good As sold by Crappy Old Books This is the moment the modern world cleared its throat and said, politely but firmly: computers are happening. And not as a hobby, not as a curiosity, but as a serious, world-rearranging idea delivered in the most mid-century way possible ? a symposium , published by Pitman, with the calm confidence of people who have seen the inside of a valve cabinet and are not afraid. Faster Than Thought is a title with swagger. It doesn?t merely suggest speed; it implies that human thinking is now the slow option, like choosing to walk to Glasgow because you enjoy the scenery. In 1955, ?digital computing machines? were still large, warm, expensive, and slightly alarming ? the sort of devices that required rooms, teams, and a respectful attitude. This book captures that era perfectly: when computation was not ?an app,? it was machinery . It?s a collection of essays and contributions from the people who were building the foundations ? engineers, mathematicians, pioneers explaining what these machines were, how they worked, and what they might become. Reading it now is like listening to the early architects of the internet describe a ?new kind of post.? They?re precise, practical, and occasionally seized by flashes of prophecy. And the irony is delicious. The authors are describing machines that, by modern standards, are hilariously underpowered ? yet the conceptual leap they?re making is immense. You can feel the excitement of discovering that information itself can be mechanised: stored, processed, transformed, trusted (or at least tested). The modern world begins in moments like this: when a group of serious people realise they?ve made something that changes the rules. There?s also a particular charm to the language of the time. No ?AI.? No ?cloud.? No ?user journey.? Instead: circuits, storage, programming, numerical control, logical design ? all delivered with the crisp assurance of an era that believed progress could be explained properly if you just drew enough diagrams. As a physical book, it?s wonderfully of its period: solid, purposeful, and designed for the desk of someone who might be consulted about national projects. In Good condition, this copy is clean and usable, with the kind of wear that says it has been handled by curious minds rather than locked away as a museum piece. Perfect for: collectors of early computing history, engineers and programmers who like origin stories with valves and ambition, anyone fascinated by how ?digital? became normal, or readers who enjoy books that feel like the future arriving in measured, formal paragraphs. Buy it because it?s a genuine landmark ? a snapshot of digital computing at the point where it stopped being a wartime experiment and started becoming civilisation?s new nervous system. Buy it because the title still hits: we live in a world built by machines that really are faster than thought ? and this is one of the books where people first sat down and tried to explain what they?d unleashed. In short: a serious, thrilling, slightly uncanny time capsule from the dawn of the computer age ? when the future was big, loud, and full of promise.
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