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The Universal Computer: The Road from Leibniz to Turing, Third Edition
The breathtakingly rapid pace of change in computing makes it easy to overlook the pioneers who began it all. The Universal The Road from Leibniz to Turing explores the fascinating lives, ideas, and discoveries of seven remarkable mathematicians. It tells the stories of the unsung heroes of the computer age - the logicians.
222 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 28, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 2, 2026
Absolutely brilliant read, I would recommend it to anyone interested in the foundations of modern digital computing as well as theoretical computer science.
Martin Davis takes you through a journey of logic starting with calculus co-inventor Leibniz and ending with the conceptual father of all computers (at least in my eyes after this book!) Alan Turing.
The book makes you appreciate the number of conceptual leaps that were made in abstract mathematics and logic gradually over the centuries which culminated in the conception of the universal computer by Turing. The book emphasises the crucial view that architectures well-known today are but physical implementations of these Universal Turing machines, including most notably the famous Von Neumann architecture.
Martin Davis takes you through a journey of logic starting with calculus co-inventor Leibniz and ending with the conceptual father of all computers (at least in my eyes after this book!) Alan Turing.
The book makes you appreciate the number of conceptual leaps that were made in abstract mathematics and logic gradually over the centuries which culminated in the conception of the universal computer by Turing. The book emphasises the crucial view that architectures well-known today are but physical implementations of these Universal Turing machines, including most notably the famous Von Neumann architecture.
September 8, 2022
The author, a mathematician himself, explains how the evolution of mathematics and logic led to the idea of a Universal Computer and finally to the creation of an actual computing device. He also touches on where that evolution is leading, with computers playing chess, and starting to reason through AI.
What I liked most about this book is how it opened my eyes to the dynamic evolution of mathematics. And also to connections between mathematics and philosophy. I appreciate how scientists of the 17th and 18th centuries have been muti-disciplinary thinkers, free to engage in whatever research they pleased, as long as they had someone supporting them. This resembles how art was created and curated.
Don't buy the Kindle edition of this book - the equations used through are misplaced and it makes it hard to follow some chapters.
What I liked most about this book is how it opened my eyes to the dynamic evolution of mathematics. And also to connections between mathematics and philosophy. I appreciate how scientists of the 17th and 18th centuries have been muti-disciplinary thinkers, free to engage in whatever research they pleased, as long as they had someone supporting them. This resembles how art was created and curated.
Don't buy the Kindle edition of this book - the equations used through are misplaced and it makes it hard to follow some chapters.
July 29, 2023
Computation or arithmetic is logic like anything else we do.
"output data of an instruction (which itself is a data) can be used by another set of instructions as input data.
Fundamental and the most certain axiom of all philosophy: Principle of contradiction by Aristotle. => X(1-X)=0 by Boole
Law of the excluded middle by Aristotle is not always true.
(something is either true or false)
17th century, mathematical research is exploded by 2 things: algebra techniques, and geometry reduced to algebra.
Value network vs policy network
"output data of an instruction (which itself is a data) can be used by another set of instructions as input data.
Fundamental and the most certain axiom of all philosophy: Principle of contradiction by Aristotle. => X(1-X)=0 by Boole
Law of the excluded middle by Aristotle is not always true.
(something is either true or false)
17th century, mathematical research is exploded by 2 things: algebra techniques, and geometry reduced to algebra.
Value network vs policy network
October 17, 2020
Awesome history of the mathematical and logical foundations of computer science from Leibniz to Turing.
The philosophical musing at the end were quite poor and did not rise to the level of quality of the presented history. So ignore the last section and this book is amazing.
The philosophical musing at the end were quite poor and did not rise to the level of quality of the presented history. So ignore the last section and this book is amazing.
February 11, 2020
One of the best books I've read. A concise summary of developments in mathematics in the last two centuries, and how it led into computer science.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews