Turing's Cathedral

The Origins of the Digital Universe

By: George Dyson

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Legendary historian and philosopher of science George Dyson vividly re-creates the scenes of focused experimentation, incredible mathematical insight, and pure creative genius that gave us computers, digital television, modern genetics, models of stellar evolution - in other words, computer code.

In the 1940s and '50s, a group of eccentric geniuses - led by John von Neumann - gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their joint project was the realization of the theoretical universal machine, an idea that had been put forth by mathematician Alan Turing. This group of brilliant engineers worked in isolation, almost entirely independent from industry and the traditional academic community. But because they relied exclusively on government funding, the government wanted its share of the results: the computer that they built also led directly to the hydrogen bomb. George Dyson has uncovered a wealth of new material about this project, and in bringing the story of these men and women and their ideas to life, he shows how the crucial advancements that dominated twentieth-century technology emerged from one computer in one laboratory, where the digital universe as we know it was born.

©2012 George Dyson (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The most powerful technology of the last century was not the atomic bomb, but software - and both were invented by the same folks. Even as they were inventing it, the original geniuses imagined almost everything software has become since. At long last, George Dyson delivers the untold story of software’s creation. It is an amazing tale brilliantly deciphered.” (Kevin Kelly, cofounder of WIRED magazine, author of What Technology Wants)

“It is a joy to read George Dyson’s revelation of the very human story of the invention of the electronic computer, which he tells with wit, authority, and insight. Read Turing’s Cathedral as both the origin story of our digital universe and as a perceptive glimpse into its future.” (W. Daniel Hillis, inventor of The Connection Machine, author of The Pattern on the Stone)

A Book Better in Print for Non-Coders

I think it is a book chock full of info, but it is presented in such a random manner: 1903, 1956, 1943, 1998, that I couldn’t keep it straight. Now digital data is part of analog machines...now analog machines are being used in a future time (surely that can’t be so!)...I finally began ignoring the dates and tried to hang onto the names—with about equal success.

The recording was so slow I increased the speed to 1.25

Where's the beef?

What did you like best about Turing's Cathedral? What did you like least?

The narrator is good.

What could George Dyson have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Reduced the biographical information about everone in the book. Especially the pointless trivia associated with relatives, houses,cars, boats, roads, pets, etc etc. A concise bio of each of the major players would have been enough to give a background. I am a quarter of the way through the book and have not heard anything significant on the subject matter as of yet. I keep skipping chapters to keep from falling asleep. Too many authors fluff out there books with these boring and irrelevant facts all intermingled with the limited subject matter. I am usually asleep when what few informative paragraphs are read.

What does Arthur Morey bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

Makes me feel like something about this purchase had some value.

Could you see Turing's Cathedral being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Everyone under the sun in every country of the world. AND their mothers!

Any additional comments?

Classify it as a biography. Or biographies.

interesting historical report of IAS

About John vonNeuman and the historical development of computers and artificial intelligence at the Institute of Advanced Studies. Author weaves in much historical data in this well written story. despite title..little about Alan Turing

If you want to know why the modern world is the way it is, you’ll want to read tbos

“Turning’s Cathedral” is one of the most fascinating history books I’ve read or listen to. It’s not a conventional book but Dyson’s sense of the importance of this somewhat hidden (in lain sight) history fascination with his subject, and clarity of writing will draw you in.
The metaphor of cathedral is apt, since like the peasants, craftsmen and nobility in a medieval town we all now live and work in the shadow of what Gödel, Turning, Johnny and Klari von Neumann, and the others began constructing.

Tremendous

A tremendous walk through the foundations of our modern digital world. If you have av interest in how we got to a world with smart phones, Google, Facebook, and broadband Internet, this audiobook is well worth your time.

Good history, strange theories, terrible narration

In sheer amount of research as well in the ability to assemble the data into a cogent narrative, this is an impressive book. I learned a great deal about the history of computing and other areas of science and engineering in the early 20th century. The book discusses both the technical details and the political and cultural implications of inventions, which gives it incredible richness. It does make some potentially controversial claims, most basically in its very premise that the IAS computer, aka MANIAC, was the primary event in the creation of what Dyson terms the "digital universe." This term itself, which he does not use lightly, hints at the hard-to-believe notion he promotes, namely that the internet is a living thing, or at least a medium inhabited by software life. He presents this as an observatin on the present state of software, not a prediction. He also seems to take for granted that the development of the hydrogen bomb, which many of the book's protagonists were involved with, was evil, and so he reports on which of them expressed remorse for this invention, but does not explain the rationales of those, such as von Neumann, who never regretted it. All of these claims are interesting and I would certainly have liked to hear the arguments favouring them, and refuting their refutations, in greater depth. I feel the book is weekend by taking such ideas somewhat for granted.

The narration was awful. I feel bad criticising Arthur Morey, who sounds like a nice guy, especially since I would probably be an awful narrator myself. But I am disturbed by the number of interesting books that use him as narrator here on Audible. He sounds equal parts indifferent and puzzled by what he reads. His voice is grating, tired, monotone. He seems to misplace the emphasis nearly every other sentence. On its face, such a miss rate makes spoken English nearly unintelligible, unless I make the conscious effort of guessing what he was trying to say. I listen to audiobooks so that I can read in distracting circumstances such as commuting or lunch. I do not welcome this additional source of distraction. I have come to think twice before spending a credit on book narrated by him. I wish they would redo all of them with someone who seems to care about and understand the text.

A fascinating look at the people behind it all

What did you love best about Turing's Cathedral?

It gave an interesting perspective about how and why the modern day computer was invented, including some amusing insights to some of the brightest minds of the 20th century.

What did you like best about this story?

That it was real :)

What about Arthur Morey’s performance did you like?

I thought it was well executed, as the book doesn't really feature any dialog or characters the "neutral" delivery was appreciated.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nothing in particular, but there were a lot of little chuckles when it came to some of these people's behaviour. In no small part because it makes these mythical people human.

Any additional comments?

I wish there would have been a bit more attention being paid to other pioneers in the computing field, but having said that, their legacy really lives on by the technology I use right now to write these words so: *raises glass*

Quite a book. A bit deep but worth the time

Quite a well researched anthology of technology, math, science and brains that pull it all together.

recent science applied allready

Most scientific discoveries take a long time to make it to the general public. In the case of mathematics this is even more visible, people applying mathematics in real life, usually hear the names from antiquity to the renaissance, but seldom the names of people of the twenty century.
Computer science is a recent science, and here we hear about people that can have existed in our lifetime who changed the world with science and technology.
I was surprised to find out that the architecture of our computers has been thought out so recently. (Which actually shows me how little I thought about the subject) And that for the pioneers of the forties, the choices aren't as evident as they appear to be now.
Recent history can seem so distant when you take things for granted.

Like the subject? You will enjoy this book.

This is about some of the most important people of the 20th Century you may have never heard of. John Von Neumann? maybe, but Stanley Ulam? It was a first for me. For better or worse and people do see these thing differently, the relentless implementation of ideas from from almost nothing to today's laptop, cell phone and even that thing that manages your automobile engine and are now seemingly crucial to our lives, perhaps even to our civilization. I read this book almost two years ago and it made me dizzy with the extraordinary stories of ultra (pun intended) brilliant human beings and the amazingly creative solutions they devised to make the first universal computing machine from parts so crude and unreliable that you would have never given it a chance. Much of what they devised is not only standard in today's computer programs, but are named after them. Recently, I saw the movie, "The Imitation Game" which focused on Alan Turing's remarkable contribution the British breaking the Nazi's unbreakable code and in no insignificant way win the war. So, I gave Turing's Cathedral another shot. Let's face it, you could read it five times and the information is so densely packed you will get large new insights and understanding each time. As I said at the beginning, you have to like the subject matter, but if you do, you will really enjoy this book - perhaps again, and even again.