The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer - Hardcover

Ifrah, Georges

3.77

60 ratings by Goodreads

9780471396710: The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471396710 ISBN 13: 9780471396710

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2000

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The fascinating follow–up to the bestselling The Universal History of Numbers

Picking up where his highly acclaimed The Universal History of Numbers left off, Georges Ifrah continues his exhilarating exploration into the world of numbers. The fascinating result, The Universal History of Computing, traces the progress of computing from the revolutionary invention of the abacus to the invention of the binary system three centuries ago and the earliest computer that followed. In this engaging but no less learned read, he covers such hot topics as numerical codes and the recent discovery of new kinds of number systems, such as "surreal" numbers. Overall, Ifrah shows us how far we have come in learning about number theory, how numbers relate to our everyday lives and how much further we have to go.

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Review:

From the I Ching to AI, there has been tremendous human brainpower devoted to devising easier means of counting and thinking. Former math teacher Georges Ifrah has devoted his life to tracking down traces of our past calculating tools and reporting on them with charm and verve. The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to Quantum Computing gives a grand title to a grand subject, and Ifrah makes good on his promise of universality by leaping far back in time and spanning all the inhabited continents.

If his scope is vast, his stories and details are still engrossing. Readers will hang on the stories of 19th-century inventors converging on multiplication machines and other, more general "engines", and better understand the roots of biological and quantum computation. Ifrah has great respect for our ancestors and their work, and he transmits this feeling to his readers with humour and humility. His timelines, diagrams and concordance help readers unfamiliar with foreign concepts of numbers and computation to keep up with his narrative.

By the end, his slight bias against strong artificial intelligence shows, but he is careful to acknowledge the future's unforeseeable nature and suggest that we keep our minds open. How can we resist? --Rob Lightner

Review:

A fascinating compendium of information about writing systems - both for words and numbers - and ancient systems of calculation, this followup book by the author of The Universal History of Numbers will enthrall specialists, though its perplexing structure may put off other readers. Part One begins with a 19-page chronology of significant events in the development of number writing up to 1654, followed by 38 pages of charts with codes and figures that are not explained or referenced anywhere in the book. Some of these charts make sense, such as a diagram showing how medieval accountants wrote very large numbers with Roman numerals. Others remain cryptic. However, in Part Two, Ifrah begins to weave together a cogent intellectual history of physical representations of numbers and calculations with compelling stories and philosophical analyses of computational processing. Occasionally, his facts are ungrounded: for example, he places John Patterson (the promoter of the cash register, born 1844) before the Revolutionary War. But since the book is primarily concerned with ideas rather than people or events, this sort of carelessness is not a major problem. Originally writing in French, Ifrah distinguishes sharply between "computing" and "computers" - and the modern computer has almost no place in his story. Unfortunately, the translator chooses to use "compute" in both senses, which makes some sections of the book unintelligible, and may lead readers to mistakenly expect this book to be a history of computers. -- Publishers Weekly, October 2, 2000

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