Pebbles to computers

the long version

This book is about the connexions that link and pattern the story of humanity's attempt to understand its experience. If we could not organise our perceptions so as to interpret them, then our cosmos would seem to be random and meaningless. The need to organise and analyse is one of the characteristics that make us human. Our responses to that need make up the history of thought.The story of computation, from the earliest use of pebbles to the most sophisticated modern circuits, is one of the central themes in the story of human endeavour, but this book is more than a history. Here the insights of the artist, the philosopher and the scientist are brought together in a unique conjuction. Like a prismatic lens they reveal colours and planes that are otherwise hidden from sight. -- from dust jacket.