Book ID: CBB001251445

Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe (2012)

unapi

Dyson, George B. (Author)


Pantheon Books


Publication Date: 2012
Physical Details: xxii + 401 pp.; ill.; maps; bibl.; index
Language: English

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. 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. 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. George Dyson 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

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Description On the group led by John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in the 1940s and 1950s.


Reviewed By

Essay Review Sumner, James (2012) Turing Today. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (pp. 295-300). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001251445/

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Authors & Contributors
Copeland, B. Jack
Sojo, Aurea Anguera de
Pazos, Juan
Lizcano, David
Lara, Juan A.
Aspray, William F.
Concepts
Computers and computing
Computer science
Mathematics
Logic
Biographies
Development of technology; change in technology
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
Places
Great Britain
United States
Zurich (Switzerland)
Japan
Germany
Europe
Institutions
Princeton University
Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.)
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