It Began with Babbage
Author: Subrata Dasgupta
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-03
Total Pages: 346
ISBN-13: 0199309418
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A complete and accessible history of computer science, beginning with Charles Babbage in 1819.
Lanterna Rally
eBook PDF Download Digital Library
It Began with Babbage
Author: Subrata Dasgupta
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-01-07
Total Pages: 304
ISBN-13: 0199309426
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →As a field, computer science occupies a unique scientific space, in that its subject matter can exist in both physical and abstract realms. An artifact such as software is both tangible and not, and must be classified as something in between, or "liminal." The study and production of liminal artifacts allows for creative possibilities that are, and have been, possible only in computer science. In It Began with Babbage, computer scientist and writer Subrata Dasgupta examines the distinct history of computer science in terms of its creative innovations, reaching back to Charles Babbage in 1819. Since all artifacts of computer science are conceived with a use in mind, the computer scientist is not concerned with the natural laws that govern disciplines like physics or chemistry; instead, the field is more concerned with the concept of purpose. This requirement lends itself to a type of creative thinking that, as Dasgupta shows us, has exhibited itself throughout the history of computer science. More than any other, computer science is the science of the artificial, and has a unique history to accompany its unique focus. The book traces a path from Babbage's Difference Engine in the early 19th century to the end of the 1960s by when a new academic discipline named "computer science" had come into being. Along the way we meet characters like Babbage and Ada Lovelace, Turing and von Neumann, Shannon and Chomsky, and a host of other people from a variety of backgrounds who collectively created this new science of the artificial. And in the end, we see how and why computer science acquired a nature and history all of its own.
The Difference Engine
Author: Doron Swade
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 380
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"Drawing on previously unused archival material, The Difference Engine is a tale of both Babbage's nineteenth-century quest to build a calculating engine and its twentieth-century sequel. For in 1991, Babbage's vision was finally realized, at least in part, by the completion at the Science Museum in London of the first full-sized Babbage engine, finished in time for the 200th anniversary of Babbage's birth. The two quests are mutually illuminating and are recounted here by the then Curator of Computing, Doron Swade - one of the main protagonists of the successful resumption of Babbage's extraordinary work."--BOOK JACKET.
Writing Computer and Information History
Author: William Aspray
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2024-05-14
Total Pages: 515
ISBN-13: 153818382X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This is not a book about the history of computing or the history of information. Instead, it is a meta-historical book about the research and writing of these types of history. The formal presentation of historical research in the form of a publication often hides the process by which the topic was selected, boundaries were drawn, evidence was selected, analytic approach was chosen and applied, results were presented, how this work fits into a larger body of scholarship, the implicit goals and biases of the author, and many other similar issues. This process of learning about the various ways to carry out computer history or information history can be enriched by this collection of reflective essays by experienced scholars, discussing the craft that they practice. This is a book that concerns both computer history and information history. The first scholarship in computer history by professionally trained scholars began to appear in the 1970s, so we are approaching a half century of research and publication in this area. The field has generated numerous pieces of exemplary scholarship from various perspectives such as intellectual history of individual technologies, business histories of firms, economic histories of market sectors, externalist histories of funding and professionalization, and so on. However, the field continues to evolve, especially as computing and communication technologies have drawn together in the form of the Internet and social media; and with them a new set of scholars is participating, drawn not only from the history of science and technology, but also from the communication and media studies fields. Powerful theories, approaches, and frameworks are being increasingly drawn more widely from both the humanities and the social sciences to inform the practice of computer history. The scholars in this volume look at what’s happened, what’s happening now, and where historical scholarship in these disciplines is headed.
A New Kind of Science
Author: Stephen Wolfram
Publisher:
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 1197
ISBN-13: 9780713991161
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This work presents a series of dramatic discoveries never before made public. Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments---illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics---Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe. Wolfram uses his approach to tackle a remarkable array of fundamental problems in science: from the origin of the Second Law of thermodynamics, to the development of complexity in biology, the computational limitations of mathematics, the possibility of a truly fundamental theory of physics, and the interplay between free will and determinism.
Charles Babbage
Author: Neil Champion
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
Published: 2001
Total Pages: 56
ISBN-13: 9781575723679
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Examines the life and contributions of the English mathematician and inventor, whose work with calculating machines caused him to be called the father of the modern computer.
The Second Age of Computer Science
Author: Subrata Dasgupta
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018
Total Pages: 361
ISBN-13: 0190843861
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Between the genesis of computer science in the 1960s and the advent of the World Wide Web around 1990, computer science evolved in significant ways. The author has termed this period the "second age of computer science." This book describes its evolution in the form of several interconnected parallel histories.
Inventors of Computer Technology
Author: Heather S. Morrison
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
Published: 2015-07-15
Total Pages: 146
ISBN-13: 1502606550
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Throughout the course of history, there have been many inventions that have changed the ways societies function, propelling them into a new era. Computers and other corresponding technologies are relatively new inventions, but they have greatly influenced the way modern societies operate. This book gives insight into the most influential inventors of computer technology and the ways in which their inventions contributed to advancing humanity.
On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures
C. S. Lewis and the Inklings
Author: Jason Fisher
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Published: 2015-09-18
Total Pages: 325
ISBN-13: 1443882968
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This is a unique collection of two of the Inklings and their literary associates’ views on the negative impacts of technology in various areas of life and the resolution of these impacts through fellowship with others and faith in the Creator. Some of these essays offer suggestions on how ensnarement by social media and surrender to modern technology can be countered by surrender to God. Other essays also demonstrate how the significant literary craft of these authors can enchant readers and invite them into fairylands from which they return empowered and with a keener spiritual vision to tackle universal and present concerns.
