Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe

Citation

Hutton, D.M. (2012), "Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe", Kybernetes, Vol. 41 No. 5/6, pp. 822-823. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684921211243464

George Dyson's book brings to life the beginnings of a story that has brought us to our present “information technology obsessed” age of smart phones, ipads and so many other devices. The average user knows little about how these devices function, but are the proud owners of what appear to be ever changing pieces of technology. lt can, of course, be argued that the whole purpose of generations of advancement in the design and production of such devices is that the user has the perfect interface and to know how it works would be an admission of failure of the computer sciences and those who market the machines. Fortunately, some users of such computerised products do want to know something of its design and function, and also of the history of the development of such remarkable inventions. Those of us involved in the computer world certainly do and, rightly, have a fascination in the way they have been contrived. We should really start at the beginning of course, but this book is a good point in the history of computers to take up the tale of its arrival and acceptance. It starts to retell the story from around the 1940s and moves rapidly to the 1950s. Its vehicle for recounting its history revolves around the mathematicians and scientists, and indeed engineers, who under the inspiring leadership of John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, New Jersey, USA took up the task that originated in Second World War, and it can be argued in even earlier days, of designing a computing machine. The author concentrates on this work but of course there were also active groups in other countries, particularly in the UK where, unfortunately, because of the “official secrets” Act, received only limited publicity. The Neumann machine, however, is still regarded as a great advance and one which provided the basis of the design of most computers that were developed. Dyson puts this all in perspective and describes how the need of the military accelerated development, particularly, he writes, when so many scientists left what was then Nazi Germany and its occupied countries. The book takes us back to the time when history was being made and it helps us to understand the challenges of the day which were met not only in the USA but also so effectively by the likes of Alan Turing, who is named in the book's title, and by the researchers at Manchester University where a computer had been designed and was in use in the late 1940s. No one, however, wants to engage in arguments about who should receive the credit for the evolution of the digital computer. There are many books on the history of computing machines, and like any other historical accounts we need to peruse them all to get an understanding of the origins and subsequent developments that have brought it to this stage in its remarkable story. This is a book worth reading to get but another version of the tale which is told by an author who perhaps through his family background, can tell it with enthusiasm and authority.

© D.M. Hutton