Turing's Cathedral

The Origins of the Digital Universe

A nicely written social and technical history of the computer project at the Institute for Advanced Study, starting with the founding of the IAS, treating the lives and personalities of the many fascinating people involved, the history of mathematics and logic in the early 20th century, the engineering developments that led to the computer, the interwoven histories of the computer and of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the effect of the computer on weather prediction and genetics, the inevitable politics and the quirks and foibles and human failures and human successes. The history is solid and well-documented, and this is above all a book about people and ideas and a great accomplishment.