The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital - Couverture souple

Steiglitz, Ken

 
9780691229027: The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0691229023 ISBN 13 : 9780691229027
Editeur : Princeton University Press, 2021

Synopsis

The genesis of the digital idea and why it transformed civilization

A few short decades ago, we were informed by the smooth signals of analog television and radio; we communicated using our analog telephones; and we even computed with analog computers. Today our world is digital, built with zeros and ones. Why did this revolution occur? The Discrete Charm of the Machine explains, in an engaging and accessible manner, the varied physical and logical reasons behind this radical transformation.

The spark of individual genius shines through this story of innovation: the stored program of Jacquard's loom; Charles Babbage's logical branching; Alan Turing's brilliant abstraction of the discrete machine; Harry Nyquist's foundation for digital signal processing; Claude Shannon's breakthrough insights into the meaning of information and bandwidth; and Richard Feynman's prescient proposals for nanotechnology and quantum computing. Ken Steiglitz follows the progression of these ideas in the building of our digital world, from the internet and artificial intelligence to the edge of the unknown. Are questions like the famous traveling salesman problem truly beyond the reach of ordinary digital computers? Can quantum computers transcend these barriers? Does a mysterious magical power reside in the analog mechanisms of the brain? Steiglitz concludes by confronting the moral and aesthetic questions raised by the development of artificial intelligence and autonomous robots.

The Discrete Charm of the Machine examines why our information technology, the lifeblood of our civilization, became digital, and challenges us to think about where its future trajectory may lead.

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À propos de l?auteur

Ken Steiglitz is professor emeritus of computer science and senior scholar at Princeton University. His books include Combinatorial Optimization, A Digital Signal Processing Primer, and Snipers, Shills, and Sharks (Princeton). He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Princeton University Press
Date d'édition
2021
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0691229023
ISBN 13 
9780691229027
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
256
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780691179438: The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0691179433 ISBN 13 :  9780691179438
Editeur : Princeton University Press, 2019
Couverture rigide