John Gribbin

OK Computer

Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe

By

Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 401pp £25 order from our bookshop

The title of George Dyson’s latest book about the scientists who worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton during its glory days is a little misleading. The story is not so much about Alan Turing, the man who came up with the idea of the modern computer, but John von Neumann, who did more than anyone else to make it a reality. No matter: like Dyson’s previous books, this is a glorious insight into how science – in this case, computer science – was done at Princeton in the middle decades of the twentieth century. It is as much a story of the personalities involved as of the discoveries they made, and you do not need any knowledge of computers or mathematics to enjoy the ride.

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