What do you think?
Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science
Classic papers by thinkers ranging from from Aristotle and Leibniz to Norbert Wiener and Gordon Moore that chart the evolution of computer science.
Ideas That Created the Future collects forty-six classic papers in computer science that map the evolution of the field. It covers all aspects of computer science: theory and practice, architectures and algorithms, and logic and software systems, with an emphasis on the period of 1936-1980 but also including important early work. Offering papers by thinkers ranging from Aristotle and Leibniz to Alan Turing and Nobert Wiener, the book documents the discoveries and inventions that created today's digital world. Each paper is accompanied by a brief essay by Harry Lewis, the volume's editor, offering historical and intellectual context.
Ideas That Created the Future collects forty-six classic papers in computer science that map the evolution of the field. It covers all aspects of computer science: theory and practice, architectures and algorithms, and logic and software systems, with an emphasis on the period of 1936-1980 but also including important early work. Offering papers by thinkers ranging from Aristotle and Leibniz to Alan Turing and Nobert Wiener, the book documents the discoveries and inventions that created today's digital world. Each paper is accompanied by a brief essay by Harry Lewis, the volume's editor, offering historical and intellectual context.
520 pages, Paperback
Published February 2, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 14, 2023
You read so many books in a decade, and then you read so many decades in a single book! Prof. Lewis's compendium of 46 "classic" computer science papers is one such. It took about a week long grind to go through such dense matter, but - just like after a steep climb - the feeling was genuinely exhilarating. Spanning from Aristotle, Leibniz to Shannon, Bush, Wiener to Moore, Dijkstra to Knuth, RSA -- this is like a grand tour of Computer Science's Louvre accompanied by insightful expert commentary of Lewis. The 8 different sections of the museum are - Logic & Mathematics; Calculating - from numbers to logical expression; "Grand Theory" of computing - bits and information; Stored program & Data; Higher level language development; Human Factors - adding process and efficiency as an engineering discipline; Algorithms and its classes; Network as a discipline. Each paper starts with a one pager commentary that often, delightfully, brings back the individual and the times to life. For example, retired Admiral Grace Hopper - in full Navy regalia - was misunderstood for a cabin attendant on her way to a facilitation in D.C.. Pitts never really went to school, contributed massively to the predominant model of AI these days and had a tragic ending. Dijkstra was very opinionated and non-relenting with his candor - good and economical with words - a deadly combination for supposed "average performers" to work with him :). Turing wrote a letter to his mother surprised at why his paper was not making an impact - it eventually did, created the whole industry! Leibniz was the primordial techno-utopian. And so many more.
Perhaps one of the best Computer Science books I ever read. Definitely THE best if I consider the "information density" alone. Cannot recommend this highly enough. Please take at least a week and savor the ideas that STILL keep building the future. More importantly, be ready to be awed with their clarity of thoughts and and deep, piercing insights that often peeked through times hundreds of years ahead.
These papers are, quite literally, the "Federalist Papers" of Computer Science. The authors are the Founding Fathers. (And, "fathers" is a mere placeholder for all genders here - like Richard Dawkins once said - something like - "as 'table' is used as him, her or it in different languages - that does not take away from its table-ism")
Perhaps one of the best Computer Science books I ever read. Definitely THE best if I consider the "information density" alone. Cannot recommend this highly enough. Please take at least a week and savor the ideas that STILL keep building the future. More importantly, be ready to be awed with their clarity of thoughts and and deep, piercing insights that often peeked through times hundreds of years ahead.
These papers are, quite literally, the "Federalist Papers" of Computer Science. The authors are the Founding Fathers. (And, "fathers" is a mere placeholder for all genders here - like Richard Dawkins once said - something like - "as 'table' is used as him, her or it in different languages - that does not take away from its table-ism")
June 12, 2024
Read for CS 191: Classics of Computer Science
Enjoyed reading the old computer science papers, for most of the class I read them every word. Though a lot of the ideas are old and explained in an opaque fashion, there are some papers that were really nice to read and worth the whole book, for a computer scientist.
Enjoyed reading the old computer science papers, for most of the class I read them every word. Though a lot of the ideas are old and explained in an opaque fashion, there are some papers that were really nice to read and worth the whole book, for a computer scientist.
August 2, 2024
A fantastic collection of essays, each with an excellent context-setting short introduction about the significance of the author and the selected contribution, that provides an arc to the historical-intellectual development of computational and cognitive infrastructures…. Particularly strong on the mathematical substrates of most computing innovations.
A good companion piece to Labatut’s MANIAC.
A good companion piece to Labatut’s MANIAC.
March 14, 2021
I don't mean to be as harsh, but as goodread labels a 1 star, I "did not like it".
As a PhD student in computer science, I found this book to be too technical for a leisurely or fun read, but too story like with extraneous details to be a good textbook. I hope it will be a good read for someone else.
As a PhD student in computer science, I found this book to be too technical for a leisurely or fun read, but too story like with extraneous details to be a good textbook. I hope it will be a good read for someone else.
August 16, 2026
Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science is a definitive, expertly curated, and indispensable anthology documenting the foundational intellectual bedrock of the digital age. Published by the MIT Press across 520 comprehensive pages, acclaimed Harvard computer scientist Harry R. Lewis compiles forty-six groundbreaking original papers that map the evolution of computing from philosophical logic to modern software architectures.
Spanning foundational thinkers like Aristotle, Leibniz, and Boole to mid-century pioneers including Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, and Gordon Moore, the anthology balances theoretical rigor with practical engineering breakthroughs. Lewis enriches each primary text with a crisp contextual essay, contextualizing the historical circumstances, mathematical problems, and social conditions that sparked these discoveries. Sweeping, accessible, and meticulously organized, Ideas That Created the Future is essential reading for computer scientists, software engineers, historians of technology, and students seeking to understand the deep conceptual roots of modern computation.
Spanning foundational thinkers like Aristotle, Leibniz, and Boole to mid-century pioneers including Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, and Gordon Moore, the anthology balances theoretical rigor with practical engineering breakthroughs. Lewis enriches each primary text with a crisp contextual essay, contextualizing the historical circumstances, mathematical problems, and social conditions that sparked these discoveries. Sweeping, accessible, and meticulously organized, Ideas That Created the Future is essential reading for computer scientists, software engineers, historians of technology, and students seeking to understand the deep conceptual roots of modern computation.
Want to Read
November 6, 2023Classic papers by thinkers ranging from Aristotle and Leibniz to Norbert Wiener and Gordon Moore that chart the evolution of computer science.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews