Engines of Logic: Mathematicians and the Origin of the Computer

Computers are ubiquitous yet to many they remain objects of irreducible mystery. This text looks at the question of how today's computers can perform such a variety of tasks if computing is just glorified arithmetic.

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Computers are everywhere todayat work, in the bank, in artist's studios, in our pocketsyet they remain to many of us objects of irreducible mystery. How can today's computers perform such a bewildering variety of tasks if computing is just glorified arithmetic? The answer, as Martin Davis lucidly illustrates, lies in the fact that computers are engines of logic. Their hardware and software embody concepts developed over centuries by logicians such as Leibniz, Boole, and Godel, culminating in the amazing insights of Alan Turing. Readers will come away from this book with a revelatory understanding of how and why computers work. 8 b/w photographs. Published in hardcover as The Universal Computer.