Turing's cathedral: the origins of the digital universe
(Book)
“It is possible to invent a single machine which can be used to compute any computable sequence,” twenty-four-year-old Alan Turing announced in 1936. In Turing’s Cathedral, George Dyson focuses on a small group of men and women, led by John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, who built one of the first computers to realize Alan Turing’s vision of a Universal Machine. Their work would break the distinction between numbers that mean things and numbers that do things—and our universe would never be the same.
Using five kilobytes of memory (the amount allocated to displaying the cursor on a computer desktop of today), they achieved unprecedented success in both weather prediction and nuclear weapons design, while tackling, in their spare time, problems ranging from the evolution of viruses to the evolution of stars.
Dyson’s account, both historic and prophetic, sheds important new light on how the digital universe exploded in the aftermath of World War II. The proliferation of both codes and machines was paralleled by two historic developments: the decoding of self-replicating sequences in biology and the invention of the hydrogen bomb. It’s no coincidence that the most destructive and the most constructive of human inventions appeared at exactly the same time.
How did code take over the world? In retracing how Alan Turing’s one-dimensional model became John von Neumann’s two-dimensional implementation, Turing’s Cathedral offers a series of provocative suggestions as to where the digital universe, now fully three-dimensional, may be heading next.
Notes
Dyson, G. (2012). Turing's cathedral: the origins of the digital universe. New York, Vintage Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Dyson, George, 1953-. 2012. Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe. New York, Vintage Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Dyson, George, 1953-, Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe. New York, Vintage Books, 2012.
MLA Citation (style guide)Dyson, George. Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe. New York, Vintage Books, 2012.
Record Information
Last Sierra Extract Time | Apr 22, 2024 07:57:18 PM |
---|---|
Last File Modification Time | Apr 22, 2024 07:57:53 PM |
Last Grouped Work Modification Time | Apr 25, 2024 10:17:59 PM |
MARC Record
LEADER | 01481nam 2200397 i 4500 | ||
---|---|---|---|
001 | ocm00076306 | ||
003 | DLC | ||
005 | 20110826183511.0 | ||
008 | 110826s2012 nyuaf e 001 0 eng | ||
010 | |a 2011030265 | ||
020 | |a 0375422773 | ||
020 | |a 9780375422775 | ||
020 | |a 9781400075997|q (paperback) | ||
040 | |a DLC|c DLC|d WBR | ||
050 | 0 | 0 | |a QA76.17|b .D97 2012 |
082 | 0 | 0 | |a 004/.09|2 23 |
092 | |a 004.0900 | ||
100 | 1 | |a Dyson, George,|d 1953-,|e author. | |
245 | 1 | 0 | |a Turing's cathedral :|b the origins of the digital universe /|c George Dyson. |
263 | |a 1202 | ||
264 | 1 | |a New York :|b Vintage Books,|c 2012. | |
300 | |a xxii, 401 pages :|b illustrations ;|c 21 cm | ||
500 | |a Includes index. | ||
600 | 1 | 0 | |a Von Neumann, John,|d 1903-1957. |
600 | 1 | 0 | |a Turing, Alan,|d 1912-1954. |
650 | 0 | |a Computers|x History. | |
650 | 0 | |a Turing machines. | |
650 | 0 | |a Computable functions. | |
650 | 0 | |a Random access memory. | |
907 | |a .b21845505 | ||
945 | |y .i45102958|i 20602901002|l elan|s -|h |u 8|x 0|w 0|v 3|t 2|z 03-27-12|o -|a 004.09 Dyson | ||
945 | |y .i47253022|i 31216003474306|l nhan|s -|h |u 10|x 1|w 0|v 6|t 2|z 04-04-13|o -|a 004 Dyson | ||
945 | |y .i48485627|i 22400698017|l mcg|s -|h |u 1|x 0|w 0|v 0|t 2|z 07-16-13|o -|a QA76.17 .D97 2012 | ||
945 | |y .i6008893x|i 22801295599|l ehan|s -|h |u 2|x 0|w 0|v 2|t 2|z 11-16-17|o -|a 004.09 DYS | ||
945 | |y .i66890238|i 21802739868|l wdan0|s -|h |u 0|x 0|w 0|v 0|t 2|z 02-23-22|o -|a 004.09/DYS | ||
998 | |e -|d a |f eng|a eh|a el|a mc|a nh|a wd |