Electronic Brains; how Computers Work
Title | Electronic Brains; how Computers Work PDF eBook |
Author | Rolf Lohberg |
Publisher | |
Pages | 232 |
Release | 1966 |
Genre | Computers |
ISBN |
Electronic Brains
Title | Electronic Brains PDF eBook |
Author | Mike Hally |
Publisher | Granta Books (Uk) |
Pages | 310 |
Release | 2005 |
Genre | Computers |
ISBN |
Account of the birth of the modern computer from 1930-1960.
Electronic Brains
Title | Electronic Brains PDF eBook |
Author | Mike Hally |
Publisher | Joseph Henry Press |
Pages | 300 |
Release | 2005-09-23 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 9780309096300 |
We've come so far, so fast. Within a relatively short period of time, we've managed to put enormous computing power in offices and homes around the globe. But before there was an IBM computer, before there were laptops and personal PCs, there were small independent teams of pioneers working on the development of the very first computer. Scattered around the globe and ranging in temperament and talent, they forged the future in basement labs, backyard, workshops, and old horse barns. Tracing the period just after World War II when the first truly modern computers were developed, Electronic Brains chronicles the escapades of the world's first "techies." Some of the initial projects are quite famous and well known, such as "LEO", the Lyons Electronic Office, which was developed by the catering company J. Lyons & Co. in London in the 1940s. Others are a bit more arcane, such as the ABC, which was built in a basement at Iowa State College and was abandoned to obscurity at the beginning of WWII. And then - like the tale of the Rand 409 which wss constructed in a barn in Connecticut under the watchful eye of a stuffed moose - there are the stories that are virtually unknown. All combine to create a fascinating history of a now-ubiquitous technology. Relying on extensive interviews from surviving members of the original teams of hardware jockeys, author Mike Hally recreates the atmosphere of the early days of computing. Rich with provocative and entertaining descriptions, we are introduced go the many eccentric, obsessive, and fiercely loyal men and women who laid the foundations for the computerized world in which we now live. As the acronyms fly fast and furious - UNIVAC, CSIRAC, and MESM, to name just a few - Electronic Brains provides a vivid sense of time, place, and science.
Alan Turing's Electronic Brain
Title | Alan Turing's Electronic Brain PDF eBook |
Author | B. Jack Copeland |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 580 |
Release | 2012-05-24 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0199609152 |
Rev. ed. of: Alan Turing's automatic computing engine / edited by B. Jack Copeland.
The Spike
Title | The Spike PDF eBook |
Author | Mark Humphries |
Publisher | Princeton University Press |
Pages | 232 |
Release | 2021-03-09 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0691213518 |
The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains work We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In The Spike, Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to understand about them. Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience, Humphries explores how spikes are born, how they are transmitted, and how they lead us to action. He dives into previously unanswered mysteries: Why are most neurons silent? What causes neurons to fire spikes spontaneously, without input from other neurons or the outside world? Why do most spikes fail to reach any destination? Humphries presents a new vision of the brain, one where fundamental computations are carried out by spontaneous spikes that predict what will happen in the world, helping us to perceive, decide, and react quickly enough for our survival. Traversing neuroscience’s expansive terrain, The Spike follows a single electrical response to illuminate how our extraordinary brains work.
Handling Digital Brains
Title | Handling Digital Brains PDF eBook |
Author | Morana Alač |
Publisher | MIT Press |
Pages | 215 |
Release | 2011 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 0262015684 |
"FMRI tesearchers do not sit passively staring at computer screens but actively involve their bodies in laboratory practice. Discussing fMRI visuals with colleagues, scientists animate the scans with gestures and talk as they work with computers. Alač argues that to understand how digital scientific visuals take on meaning, we must consider their dynamic coordination with gestures, speech, and working hands. These multimodal interactions, she suggests, are an essential component of digital scientific works ... Scientific practices in the fMRI lab demonstrate thinking that engages the whole lived body and the world in which the body is situated. The turn toward the digital does not bring with it abstraction but a manual and embodied engagement. The practical and multimodal engagement with digital brains in the laboratory challenges certain assumptions behind fMRI technology; it suggests our hands are essential to learning and the making of meaning."--Jacket description.
Giant Brains Or Machines that Think
Title | Giant Brains Or Machines that Think PDF eBook |
Author | Edmund Callis Berkeley |
Publisher | |
Pages | 302 |
Release | 1950 |
Genre | Calculators |
ISBN |