The Universal Machine: From the Dawn of Computing to Digital Consciousness

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. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction....Pages 1-7 The Dawn of Computing....Pages 9-40 Marvelous Machines....Pages 41-49 Computers Go to War....Pages 51-88 Computers and Big Business....Pages 89-103 Deadheads and Propeller Heads....Pages 105-123 The Computer Gets Personal....Pages 125-159 Weaving the Web....Pages 161-181 Dotcom....Pages 183-200 The Second Coming....Pages 201-234 Web 2.0....Pages 235-258 Digital Underworld....Pages 259-283 Machines of Loving Grace....Pages 285-306 Digital Consciousness....Pages 307-329 Back Matter....Pages 331-353