Faster Thought Symposium Digital Computing by Bowden (9 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. First paperback edition of this important book, first published in 1953. 24 experts present an account of digital computing machines, their history, theory and design and their application to industry, commerce and scientific research. Illustrated b/w. Small PO label else clean and sound with no markings or inscription. 15 x 23cms with 416pp. We regret we are no longer able to ship to Denmark. All profits to Amnesty International.

Hardback. Condition: Good. Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines (1971) edited by B.V. Bowden Pitman ISBN: none (because in 1971 the future didn?t need barcodes) Condition: Good As sold by Crappy Old Books This is the moment the modern world cleared its throat and said, politely but firmly: computers are happening. And not as a hobby, not as a curiosity, but as a serious, world-rearranging idea delivered in the most mid-century way possible ? a symposium , published by Pitman, with the calm confidence of people who have seen the inside of a valve cabinet and are not afraid. Faster Than Thought is a title with swagger. It doesn?t merely suggest speed; it implies that human thinking is now the slow option, like choosing to walk to Glasgow because you enjoy the scenery. In 1955, ?digital computing machines? were still large, warm, expensive, and slightly alarming ? the sort of devices that required rooms, teams, and a respectful attitude. This book captures that era perfectly: when computation was not ?an app,? it was machinery . It?s a collection of essays and contributions from the people who were building the foundations ? engineers, mathematicians, pioneers explaining what these machines were, how they worked, and what they might become. Reading it now is like listening to the early architects of the internet describe a ?new kind of post.? They?re precise, practical, and occasionally seized by flashes of prophecy. And the irony is delicious. The authors are describing machines that, by modern standards, are hilariously underpowered ? yet the conceptual leap they?re making is immense. You can feel the excitement of discovering that information itself can be mechanised: stored, processed, transformed, trusted (or at least tested). The modern world begins in moments like this: when a group of serious people realise they?ve made something that changes the rules. There?s also a particular charm to the language of the time. No ?AI.? No ?cloud.? No ?user journey.? Instead: circuits, storage, programming, numerical control, logical design ? all delivered with the crisp assurance of an era that believed progress could be explained properly if you just drew enough diagrams. As a physical book, it?s wonderfully of its period: solid, purposeful, and designed for the desk of someone who might be consulted about national projects. In Good condition, this copy is clean and usable, with the kind of wear that says it has been handled by curious minds rather than locked away as a museum piece. Perfect for: collectors of early computing history, engineers and programmers who like origin stories with valves and ambition, anyone fascinated by how ?digital? became normal, or readers who enjoy books that feel like the future arriving in measured, formal paragraphs. Buy it because it?s a genuine landmark ? a snapshot of digital computing at the point where it stopped being a wartime experiment and started becoming civilisation?s new nervous system. Buy it because the title still hits: we live in a world built by machines that really are faster than thought ? and this is one of the books where people first sat down and tried to explain what they?d unleashed. In short: a serious, thrilling, slightly uncanny time capsule from the dawn of the computer age ? when the future was big, loud, and full of promise.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Reprinted 1967. In certain light conditions, texture variation and color discoloration to boards. Small white flecks to rear board. Creasing to spine head. Edgewear and soft creasing to spine tips. Previous owner's signature to front pastedown. Owner's initial to fore edge text block. Internally very good. Shelf 1a.

Hardcover, 416 pages. Condition: Very good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very good. 1968 reprint. Light wear to dust jacket, slight rubbing to corners. 1cm closed tear to front panel adjacent to top of spine panel. Minor soiling to rear panel and minor age toning to spine panel. Flap price unclipped. Very slight rubbing to extremities of blue cloth boards, small ding to head of spine. Minor soiling to text block edges, interior clean. A well-preserved copy.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 8vo (large). 8th Printing. Blue cloth, xix, 416pp.Bookplate on FFeP. Frontispiece of Ada Lovelace, with 15 plates, [including 1 folding]. Light bruise and fading on spine, else near fine in a near fine, clipped d/w that is somewhat soiled with some superficial tears at extremities of jacket. Several essays on the History of Computing and Computing Machines, Digital Computing Machines in Britain and America, and Applications of Digital Computing Machines.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. ] Hardback, tall octavo, 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches, xx + 416 pages, Near Fine in VG+ to Near Fine dj (dj fitted w/ protective mylar sleeve). In grading the book itself as Near Fine I'm taking into consideration the previous owner who has signed his name twice on ffep as Stan Foote. This seems to be the H. (Horace) Stanwood Foote who is mentioned in David Boslaugh's book When Computers Went to Sea: The Digitization of the U.S. Navy. It's probably Foote's small notation "Page 30" in red pencil on the rfep, and with then a single line underlined in red pencil on p.30, a brief 1842 Lady Lovelace quote about the Analytical Engine, and to note, this book's frontis is a portrait of Lady Lovelace as "Ada Augusta, The Countess of Lovelace". Otherwise, the book itself is about flawless w/ only a normal shallow bump at each spine end. The book's dj is quite nice with price corner intact, no tears & only a very few minor imperfections incl only a very light amount of tanning. Due to size & weight, Priority or International order will require additional shipping charges. RWR5 Science Math Mathematics Computers Electrical Engineering.

Hardcover. Condition: Good to Very Good. Fair-Good covers, Interiors Good-Very Good clean and tight, faint blue stamp on fly leaf, sporadic penned notes in the beginning of the book.

First edition, in the dust jacket, of "the most widely read early English introduction to electronic computing" (Origins of Cyberspace), a collection of 24 essays by leading experts in the field, including a chapter on computer chess that was one of Alan Turing's final published pieces. From 1950 to 1953 Bertram Vivian Bowden (1910-1989) worked for the Ferranti corporation, a computer company that specialised in machines for defence and electrical systems and which introduced the first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark I, in 1951. Bowden "was particularly effective in explaining, with uncanny prescience, the dramatic effect that the digital computer was destined to have" (ODNB). In the preface he describes some of the tasks, such as engineering calculations, that computers will soon take over from humans, and writes, "It seems probable that we shall have a second Industrial Revolution on our hands before long In the next revolution machines may replace mens' brains and relieve them of much of the drudgery and boredom which is now the lot of so many white collar workers". Origins of Cyberspace 504. Octavo. Photographic frontispiece of Ada Lovelace, 13 plates, 2 folding tables, diagrams within text. Original cream cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Ownership initials on front free endpaper. Spine lightly sunned, handful of marks to cloth and edges, contents clean; jacket price-clipped, spine toned and soiled, rear flap fold rubbed, a few chips and closed tears to edges, scuff to front panel: a very good copy in like jacket.

A first edition, first printing published by Pitman in 1953. A very good copy in original cloth - without inscriptions. The book is famous due to the inclusion of Alan Turing's 'Digital Computers Applied to Games' (pp. 286-310) - Hook and Norman 'Origins of Cyberspace', 504.