The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital

Kenneth Steiglitz

  • 出版商: Princeton University
  • 出版日期: 2019-02-05
  • 售價: $943
  • 貴賓價: 9.5$896
  • 語言: 英文
  • 頁數: 256
  • 裝訂: Hardcover
  • ISBN: 0691179433
  • ISBN-13: 9780691179438
  • 相關分類: ARM
  • 立即出貨(限量) (庫存=1)

商品描述

The genesis of the digital idea and why it transformed civilization

A few short decades ago, we were informed by the smooth signals of analog television and radio; we communicated using our analog telephones; and we even computed with analog computers. Today our world is digital, built with zeros and ones. Why did this revolution occur? The Discrete Charm of the Machine explains, in an engaging and accessible manner, the varied physical and logical reasons behind this radical transformation.

The spark of individual genius shines through this story of innovation: the stored program of Jacquard’s loom; Charles Babbage’s logical branching; Alan Turing’s brilliant abstraction of the discrete machine; Harry Nyquist’s foundation for digital signal processing; Claude Shannon’s breakthrough insights into the meaning of information and bandwidth; and Richard Feynman’s prescient proposals for nanotechnology and quantum computing. Ken Steiglitz follows the progression of these ideas in the building of our digital world, from the internet and artificial intelligence to the edge of the unknown. Are questions like the famous traveling salesman problem truly beyond the reach of ordinary digital computers? Can quantum computers transcend these barriers? Does a mysterious magical power reside in the analog mechanisms of the brain? Steiglitz concludes by confronting the moral and aesthetic questions raised by the development of artificial intelligence and autonomous robots.

The Discrete Charm of the Machine examines why our information technology, the lifeblood of our civilization, became digital, and challenges us to think about where its future trajectory may lead.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

「數位理念的起源及其如何改變文明」

幾十年前,我們透過模擬電視和廣播接收平滑的訊號;我們使用模擬電話進行溝通;甚至使用模擬電腦進行計算。如今,我們的世界是由零和一所構建的數位世界。為什麼會發生這場革命?《機器的離散魅力》以引人入勝且易於理解的方式解釋了這場根本性轉變背後的各種物理和邏輯原因。

這個創新故事中閃耀著個人天才的火花:雅卡爾的織布機儲存程式;查爾斯·巴比奇的邏輯分支;艾倫·圖靈對離散機器的卓越抽象;哈利·奈奎斯特對數位信號處理的基礎;克勞德·香農對資訊和頻寬意義的突破性洞察;以及理查德·費曼對納米技術和量子計算的預見性提議。肯·斯泰格利茨追蹤這些想法在我們數位世界的建構中的進展,從互聯網和人工智能到未知的邊緣。像著名的旅行推銷員問題這樣的問題真的超出了普通數位計算機的能力嗎?量子計算機能否突破這些障礙?類比大腦的機械中是否存在神秘的魔力?斯泰格利茨最後探討了人工智能和自主機器人發展所引發的道德和美學問題。

《機器的離散魅力》探討了為何我們的資訊科技,也就是我們文明的命脈,變成了數位形式,並挑戰我們思考它未來的發展方向。