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Ebook124 pages1 hour
Turing and the Universal Machine (Icon Science): The Making of the Modern Computer
By Jon Agar
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this ebook
The history of the computer is entwined with that of the modern world and most famously with the life of one man, Alan Turing. How did this device, which first appeared a mere 50 years ago, come to structure and dominate our lives so totally? An enlightening mini-biography of a brilliant but troubled man.
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Author
Jon Agar
Jon Agar is Professor of Science and Technology Studies at UCL. He has written on the history of radio-astronomy, computing, and mobile phones, and his most recent book, Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, surveys the history of science across the twentieth century. He also co-edited Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain (UCL Press).
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Reviews for Turing and the Universal Machine (Icon Science)
Rating: 3.3846153846153846 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
13 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent short account of how computers were first invented. Short, to the point, excellent photographs, such as portrait of Babbage, photographs of equipment from early years.Relates modern computers to mathematics with a chapter on Euclid. And who was Alan Turing ? At the start of WWII he led the effort to break the German code.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A surprisingly fast read. It took an evening, and while a slight book, it didn't seem that slight when I picked it up. As a history of early computers it is interesting enough, as is its description of Turing and some other (for me) rather obscure topics (mathematics and multiple infinities, some of which are larger than others anyone?)...don't let the latter put you off, it is clearly explained (and also safely jumpable if you desire). I thought it was most notable for its suggestion that rather than computers enabling the modern world (with large bureaucracies both in states and companies), it is more a reflection of the increasingly statist and corporate society of the early twentieth century.An interesting little book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Readable, brief, interesting but not mindblowing.