Sci. Ma: The Pattern On The Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work (Science Masters) Book

Computation transcends technology; computers which today are built from electrical circuits, might just as well be built from plumbing or sticks and string. They do not depend for their abilities upon technology--they depend on ideas; and Daniel Hillis has gathered the most important and beautiful of these ideas into this timely little book. Hillis believes it is possible to construct computers from the bottom up; that rather than building complex machines to perform predetermined tasks, we should allow computers to self-organise, evolving from simple forms into more complex structures analagous to--indeed equivalent to--biological systems. These conclusions emerge, naturally and quietly, from Hillis's steady, meticulous account of Boolean logic, finite-state machines, programming languages--all the big, simple ideas from which computation, and perhaps intelligence itself, is made. It is not Hillis's job here to speculate over-much on the nature of artificial consciousness or life; for that readers should turn to George Dyson's excellent Darwin Among the Machines. But it is a dull reader indeed who, armed with Hillis's book, fails to acquire a new respect for computers and the possibilities they contain. Computers are not gadgets--they are artificial expressions of universal laws that seem to govern the essentials of perception, thought and being. For Hillis, etched silicon is the proverbial Philosopher's Stone. Having read this book, the most ardent cynic will find it hard to disagree with him. --Simon IngsRead More