The universal machine
Subtitle: from the dawn of computing to digital consciousness
By: Ian Watson
Publisher: Copernicus Books
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 353
ISBN-13: 9783642281020; 9783642281013
Subjects: Informatique; COMPUTERS; Popular works; Computer science; History
Description: The computer unlike other inventions is universal; you can use a computer for many tasks: writing, composing music, designing buildings, creating movies, inhabiting virtual worlds, communicating...  This popular science history isn't just about technology but introduces the pioneers: Babbage, Turing, Apple's Wozniak and Jobs, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Zuckerberg. This story is about people and the changes computers have caused. In the future ubiquitous computing, AI, quantum and molecular computing could even make us immortal. The computer has been a radical invention. In less than a single human life computers are transforming economies and societies like no human invention before.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction --; title: The Dawn of Computing --; title: Marvelous Machines --; title: Computers Go to War --; title: Computers and Big Business --; title: Deadheads and Propeller Heads --; title: The Computer Gets Personal --; title: Weaving the Web --; title: Dotcom --; title: The Second Coming --; title: Web 2.0 --; title: Digital Underworld --; title: Machines of Loving Grace --; title: Digital Consciousness.