Turing's Cathedral
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Google Tech TalksApril, 9 2008ABSTRACTNew Light on the Dawn of Digital Computing, 1945-1958The digital universe consists of two kinds of bits: differences in space and differences in time. Digital computers translate between these two forms of information--structure and sequence--according to definite rules. Sixty-three years ago, at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, John von Neumann and a small group of nonconformists launched a project to do this at electronic speed. The resulting architecture and coding has descended directly to almost all computers now in use.Von Neumann succeeded in jump-starting the computer revolution by bringing engineers into the den of the mathematicians, rather than by bringing mathematicians into a den of engineers. The stored-program computer, as conceived by Alan Turing and delivered by John von Neumann, broke the distinction between numbers that *mean* things and numbers that *do* things. Our universe would never be the same.With a mere 5 kilobytes of random access memory, von Neumann and colleagues tackled previously intractable problems ranging from thermonuclear explosions, stellar evolution, and long-range weather forecasting to cellular automata, genetic coding, and the origins of life. Programs were small enough to be completely debugged, but hardware could not be counted on to perform consistently from one kilocycle to the next. This situation is now reversed.Speaker: George Dyson
Canal: People & Blogs
Añadido: April 18, 2008 at 9:06 am
Autor: googletechtalks
Duración: 08:08
Puntuación: 4.68
Reproducciones: 6593
Etiquetas: education engedu google googletechtalks talk talks techtalk techtalks
Comentarios
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manifest123 (June 15, 2008 at 10:58 pm)
I'm not saying he doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm just saying it would be nice if he read the quotes out load for the audience.
soukso (June 15, 2008 at 9:55 pm)
carrier waves!!!!!!
Metophile (May 17, 2008 at 9:12 pm)
Great Talk. I love the last bit and a half especially much.
bielawaa (May 7, 2008 at 5:00 am)
good topic , bad guy
robotaholic (May 6, 2008 at 12:14 am)
The abolute best and most important thing anyone can ever be and what I wish I was is -The best mathemetician who ever lived or WILL ever live. :)
GroupThink (April 20, 2008 at 7:33 pm)
Fascinating video.
stevenrszabo (April 20, 2008 at 2:44 pm)
Nice video. During the Q&A at the end, Dyson demonstrates a myopic misunderstanding about Kurzweil's vision of singularity. The number of transistors is just one example that Kurzweil cites. Kurweil also refers to breakthroughs in brain modeling, software, algorithms and things we have not foreseen yet.
shizzafobble (April 19, 2008 at 5:33 pm)
You're kidding, right? George Dyson *knows* what he's talking about. He stutters - this isn't because he's not familiar with the material...
manifest123 (April 19, 2008 at 1:19 am)
Very annoying presentation style. Why don't you read the quotes before you talk about them?
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