Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe

An unusual, wonderful, even visionary account of the early years of computers - Francis Spufford, Guardian

How did computers take over the world? This is the story behind how the PC, ipod, smartphone and almost every aspect of modern life came into being.

In 1945 a small group of brilliant engineers and mathematicians gathered at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, determined to build a computer that would make Alan Turing’s theory of a ‘universal machine’ reality. Led by the polymath emigre John von Neumann, they created the numerical framework that underpins almost all modern computing - and ensured that the world would never be the same again.