Book ID: CBB366030595

The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital (2019)

unapi

Steiglitz, Ken (Author)


Princeton University Press


Publication Date: 2019
Physical Details: 256
Language: English

The genesis of the digital idea and why it transformed civilizationA few short decades ago, we were informed by the smooth signals of analog television and radio; we communicated using our analog telephones; and we even computed with analog computers. Today our world is digital, built with zeros and ones. Why did this revolution occur? The Discrete Charm of the Machine explains, in an engaging and accessible manner, the varied physical and logical reasons behind this radical transformation.The spark of individual genius shines through this story of innovation: the stored program of Jacquard’s loom; Charles Babbage’s logical branching; Alan Turing’s brilliant abstraction of the discrete machine; Harry Nyquist’s foundation for digital signal processing; Claude Shannon’s breakthrough insights into the meaning of information and bandwidth; and Richard Feynman’s prescient proposals for nanotechnology and quantum computing. Ken Steiglitz follows the progression of these ideas in the building of our digital world, from the internet and artificial intelligence to the edge of the unknown. Are questions like the famous traveling salesman problem truly beyond the reach of ordinary digital computers? Can quantum computers transcend these barriers? Does a mysterious magical power reside in the analog mechanisms of the brain? Steiglitz concludes by confronting the moral and aesthetic questions raised by the development of artificial intelligence and autonomous robots.The Discrete Charm of the Machine examines why our information technology, the lifeblood of our civilization, became digital, and challenges us to think about where its future trajectory may lead.

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Includes Chapters

Review Troy Astarte (2020) Review of unknown publication. British Journal for the History of Mathematics (pp. 89-91). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB366030595/

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Authors & Contributors
Downey, Greg
Estrin, Deborah
Zhang, Yongjie
Wu, Dengsheng
Hollinger, Veronica
Li, Jianping
Concepts
Information technology
Computers and computing
Information theory
Technology and society
Big data
Information science
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
18th century
Places
United States
Italy
North America
New Zealand
Japan
Germany
Institutions
Universität Stuttgart
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