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A review by iacobus
Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson
2.0
I have complicated thoughts about this book. I want to like it, but so much of it was not something I wanted.
First, as a history of IAS, von Neumann, the atomic bomb and early computing, I enjoyed the book throughly. It was definitely disjointed and many times wrong or very vague (as other reviewers point out). I don't think Dyson fully understood a lot of the tech that he was trying to write and ended up just blowing that task. But as a biography and the parts about people were more than a good balance.
That said, from the mid point about the hydrogen bomb on, the book goes down a crazy rabbit hole. At one point, in all honesty, Dyson attempts to argue that digital things, like the Internet, are a form of ET style alien life. Computer programs, from Google to Angry Birds, are sentient living and conscious organisms. It was like reading the writings of an insane person.
My take away: read the first half and stop at the h bomb.
First, as a history of IAS, von Neumann, the atomic bomb and early computing, I enjoyed the book throughly. It was definitely disjointed and many times wrong or very vague (as other reviewers point out). I don't think Dyson fully understood a lot of the tech that he was trying to write and ended up just blowing that task. But as a biography and the parts about people were more than a good balance.
That said, from the mid point about the hydrogen bomb on, the book goes down a crazy rabbit hole. At one point, in all honesty, Dyson attempts to argue that digital things, like the Internet, are a form of ET style alien life. Computer programs, from Google to Angry Birds, are sentient living and conscious organisms. It was like reading the writings of an insane person.
My take away: read the first half and stop at the h bomb.