Books on Computer History

This compilation has been a good reflective exercise,
recalling what I've enjoyed with the common theme:

the history and evolution of computers.

Book Titles

Men and Machines (1929)
Cybernetics, or Control and Communication
in The Animal and the Machine (1948)
Giant Brains, or Machines That Think (1949)
The Human Use of Human Beings (1950)
A Programming Language (1962)
Semantic Information Processing (1968)
The Art of Computer Programming, Five volumes (1973 -- 2010)
Machines, Languages, and Computation (1978)
Mind-Storms (1980)
Smalltalk (1980)
Computer Structures: Principles and Examples (1982)
Tools For Thought (1985)
The Society of Mind (1985-1986)
The SGML Handbook (1990)
The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990)
Computing: A Human Activity (1992)
Being Digital (1995)
Where Wizards Stay Up Late (1996)
Darwin Among the Machines
  The Evolution of Global Intelligence (1997)
In the Company of Giants (1997)
Talking Back To The Computer (1997)
Affective Computing (1997)
What Will Be (1997)
Languages and Machines (1997)
Anti Patterns, Refactoring Software
  Architectures, and Projects in Crisis (1998)
Eniac, The Triumphs and Tragedies
  of the World's First Computer (1998)
A History of Modern Computing (1998)
Release 2.1 -- Ester Dyson (1998)
The Cathedral & The Bazaar, Musings on LINUX
  and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary (1999)
Dealers of Lightning (1999)
The Cluetrain Manifesto
  The End of Business As Usual (1999)
Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999)
Inventing the Internet (1999)
Age of Spiritual Machines
  When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (2000)
The Difference Engine (2000)
Engines of Logic (2000)
The Future of Ideas
  The fate of the commons in a connected world (2001)
Small Pieces Loosely Joined
  a unified theory of the web (2002)
Designing World-Class E-Learning (2002)
The Dream Machine (2002)
Ethics, Law, Computer Software (2002)
The Invisible Future (2002)
Marshall McLuhan -- Understanding Me (2003)
Free Culture (2004)
The Singularity is Near (2005)
The World Is Flat (2005)

Men and Machines (1929)

Stuart Chase
Copyright © 1929
The Macmillan Company

This book is a most perceptive read, foreseeing many events with
remarkable insights. I've separately summarized it.
One is Premonition of 9/11
In the chapter 'The Two Hour War' ...
Particularly complete would be the termination of New York.
With her bridges and tunnels bombed, with her many tall buildings
crashing like glorified tenpins, with her super-congestion,
citizens would hardly have time to seize their checkbooks
before being summoned to the waiting rooms of the recording angel.
...This is the sort of thing which airplanes, with bombs swung below
them, pilot controlled or automatic, are perfectly equipped to do.

Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in The Animal and the Machine (1948)

Norbert Wiener
Copyright © 1948 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ISBN 0262230070

A study of vital importance to psychologists, physiologists, electrical engineers, radio engineers,
sociologists, philosophers, mathematicans, anthropologists, psychiatrists, and physicists.

Giant Brains, or Machines That Think (1949)

Edmund C. Berkeley, John Wiley & Sons, 1949
This is the first book I read about computers, in December 1955,
while I was in the Army at Fort Knox, Kentucky,
It convinced me that my career would be best aimed
in that direction. I have not regretted that decision.

Cybernetics and Society
"The single most important and influential work on the relation
between computer technology and the social sciences"
Copyright © 1950, 1954 by Norbert Weiner
Afterword copyright © 1967 by Avon Books

Semantic Information Processing (1968)

Marvin Minsky, Editor
Copyright © 1968 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Library of Congress catalog card number 68-18239
Contents

This book presents a group of experiments directed toward making
intelligent machines. Each of the ocmputer programs described
here demonstrates some aspects of behavoir that everyone would
agree requires some intelligence.

Preface
1. Introduction -- 13 subsections
2. SIR: A computer Program for Semantic Information Retrieval
Bertram Raphael -- 7 subsections
3. Natural Language Input for a Computer Problem-solving System
Daniel G. Bobrow -- 7 subsections
4. Semantic Memory
M. Ross Quillian -- 5 subsections
5. A Program for the Solution of Geometric-Analogy Intelligenct
Test Questions
Thomas G. Evans -- 6 subsections
6. A Deductive Question-Answering System
Fischer Black -- 7 subsections
7. Programs with Common Senst
John McCarthy -- 2 subsections
8. Descriptive Languages and Problen Solving
Marvin L. Minsky -- 3 subsections
9. Matter, Mind, and Models,
Marvin L. Minsky -- 9 subsections
Subject Index
Name Index

Machines, Languages, and Computation (1978)

This book explores underlying themes of the theory of computation:
  Finite-State Machines
  Finite-State Languages
  Limitations of Finite Automata
  Tape Automata
  Pushdown Automata
  Context-Free Languages
  Syntax ANalysis
  Turing Machines
  Unsolvable Problems
  Recursive Functions
  Post systems

Mind-Storms (1980)

Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas
Seymour Papert
Copyright © 1980 by Basic Books, Inc.

Fundamental Ideas:
1. It is possible to design computers so that learning
to communicate with others can be a creative process.
2. Learning to communicate with the computer may change
how other learning takes place.

An "object to think with" is the "Turtle"; a computer-controlled
cybernetic animal. It exists within the cognitive minicultures
of the "LOGO environment. Logo being the computer language
in which communication with the Turtle takes place. It's purpose
is to provide a good environment to think with and to program.

Computer Structures: Principles and Examples (1982)

Copyright © 1982 by McGraw Hill, inc.
Daniel P Siewiorek, C. Gordon Bell, Allen Newell
Part 1: Fundamentals -- 3 chapters
Part 2 Regions of Computer Space --
deals with different architectures 23 chapters
Part 3 Computer Classes -- 12 chapters
Part 4 Famly Range, compatibility and evolution

When Bell and Newell first published this in 1971,
the concept of computer structures was just emerging.
This is a major expansion. The ACM Committee on Curriculum
in Computer Science suggests four subsets for study:
Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced; plus special topics.

Smalltalk-80 (1983)

When I first saw a demonstration of this language, the demonstrator
remarked after some time that he'd never needed to use a keyboard;
all that he'd done was controlled by a mouse. I was amazed.

Tools For Thought (1985)

Copyright © 1985 Howard Rheingold
First published in 1985 by Simon &Schuster/Prentice Hall
First MIT Press edition 2000
ISBN 0-262-68115-3 (pbk)
The history and future of mind-expanding technology

At the beginning of the 1980s a hand-full of rebels who weren't
seeking fame or fortune, but spent their lives creating a new tool
for enhancing human thought. They created it because they wanted
it for their personal use, because it was a cool thing to do,
and because they thought it would improve the human lot.
The work of these pioneers was revisited in 1999 to see how
their ideas had developed.

The Society of Mind (1985)

Marvin Minsky, Simon & Schuster, 1985, 1986
ISBN 0-671-60740-5
Lays the foundations for the solution of one of the last great
problems of modern science, that of the origin and evolution
of thought and consciousness in natural and artificial intelligence.
-- Professor Guy Cellerier

The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990)

Raymond Kurzweil, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990
ISBN 0-262-11121-7
Addresses "what is artificial intelligence,
how does the human brain give rise to thought?"

The SGML Handbook (1990)

Thanks to Harvey Bingham for the idea of the format of the
syntax productions, with their built-in cross-references.

Computing: A Human Activity (1992)

Peter Naur, ACM Press, 1992
ISBN 0-201-58069-1
Collects some 40 years of his writings.

The Art of Computer Programming (1973 -- 2010)

The Art of Computer Programming,
Fundamental Algorithms, Volume 1

Third Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1997),
xx+650pp.
ISBN 0-201-89683-4

Volume 1 Fascicle 1, MMIX: A RISC Computer for the New Millenium (2005),
v+134pp. ISBN 0-201-85392-2

The Art of Computer Programming,
Seminumerical Algorithms, Volume 2

Third Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1997),
xiv+762pp. ISBN 0-201-89684-2

The Art of Computer Programming,
Sorting and Searching, Volume 3

First Edition 1973, second printing 1975
Second Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1998),
xiv+780pp.+foldout.
ISBN 0-201-89685-0

The Art of Computer Programming,
Combinatorial Algorithms, Volume 4

In preparation. (Some parts are already available; see below.)
Present plans are to publish ``Volume 4''
as at least three separate subvolumes:

Volume 4A, Enumeration and Backtracking
Volume 4B, Graph and Network Algorithms
Volume 4C and possibly 4D, Optimization and Recursion

Volume 4 Fascicle 2,
Generating All Tuples and Permutations (2005), v+128pp.
ISBN 0-201-85393-0

Volume 4 Fascicle 3,
Generating All Combinations and Partitions (2005), vi+150pp.
ISBN 0-201-85394-9

The Art of Computer Programming,
Syntactic Algorithms, Volume 5

In preparation, to contain:

9. Lexical scanning (includes also string search and data compression)
10. Parsing techniques

Estimated to be ready in 2010

Being Digital (1995)

Negroponte, Nicholas
Vintage Books, a division of Random House, New York 1995
ISBN 0-679-43919-6
Perceptive insight to what has evolved since its writing,
by one who helped make it happen through his leadership
of the MIT Media Lab.

Where Wizards Stay Up Late (1998)

The origins of the internet
Copyright © 1996 by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon
First Touchstone Edition 1998
ISBN 0-684-81201-0 (hc)
ISBN 0-684-83267-4 (pbk)

Darwin Among the Machines
The Evolution of Global Intelligence (1997)

George B. Dyson, Perseus Books 1997
ISBN 0-7382-0030-1
retraces the steps that lead us into the digital wilderness;
undermining the distinction between technology and nature,
chronicles the evolution of collective mechanical intelligence,
Dyson believes that nature is on the side of the machine.

In the Company of Giants (1997)

Rama Dev Jager and Rafael Ortiz
McGraw-Hill
Copyright © 1997 by Rama D. Jager and Rafael Ortiz
ISN 0-07-032934-6
Candid conversations with the visionaries of the Digital World:
Gates, Grove, Jobs, Case, Hewlett, Dell, Cook, Olsen, Rodgers, Wang,
McCracken, Hawkins, Kurtzig, Eubanks, Warnock, and Geschke.

Talking Back To The Computer (1997)

Computers and Human Aspiration
Peter J. Denning, Editor
Chapters from the © ACM 1997 Conference in San Jose, CA
ISBN 0-387-98413-5
Contributors include: Denning, Burke, Bell, Mead, Birnbaum, Maes,
Myhrvold, Ferren, Perry, Flores, Cerf, Laurel, Wilkes, Soloway,
Hundt, Sterling, Reddy, Gell-Mann, and Kasik.

Affective Computing (1997)

Copyright © 1997 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ISBN 0-262-16170-2 (hc: alk. paper)
This book is about emotions and feeling. If we want computers to be
genuinely intelligent and to interact naturally with us, we must give
computers the ability to recognize, understand, even to have and
express emotions.

What Will Be (1997)

Copyright © 1997 Michael Dertouzos
How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives
Harper Collins Publishers
ISBN 0-06-251479-2 (cloth)
ISBN 0-06-251540-3 (paper)

Sections on:
  Shaping the Future
  How Your Life Will Change
  Reuniting Technology and Humanity
  Appendix on Five Pillars of the Information Age

Languages and Machines (1997)

An introduction to the Theory of Computer Science, 2nd edition
Sudkamp, Thomas A.
ISBN 0-201-92136-2
Copyright © 1997 Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc.
17 chapters

Anti Patterns, Refactoring Software,
Architectures, and Projects in Crisis (1998)

Brown, Malveau, McCormick, Mowbray,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998,
ISBN 0-471-19713-0

Guidance on recognizing signs of failure
in developing software projects,
and how to avoid them, written with humor and insight.

Eniac -- The Triumphs and Tragedies
of the World's First Computer (1998)

Scott McCartney, Berkeley Books, 1998
ISBN 0-425-17644-4

The author traced the evolution of computing from about 1930.

A History of Modern Computing (1998)

Copyright © 1998, 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ceruzzi, Paul E. -- 2nd ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN 0-262-53203-4
QA76.17 .C47 02003

Release 2.1 (1998)

A design for living in the digital age
the upgraded edition of Release 2.0
Copyright © 1998 by Esther Dyson
ISBN 0-7679-0012-X (pb)

The Cathedral & The Bazaar,
Musings on LINUX and Open Source
by an Accidental Revolutionary (1999)

Eric S. Raymond, O'Reilly & Associates, 1999
ISBN 1-56592-724-9
Eric built the LINUX email transport program.

Dealers of Lightning (1999)

This book is an unprecedented look at the ideas, the inventions, and
the individuals (Bob Taylor, Jack Goldman, Alan Kaye, Steve Jobs)
that propelled Xerox PARC to the frontier of technohistory -- and
the corporate machinations that almost prevented it from
achieving greatness.

The Cluetrain Manifesto,
The End of Business As Usual (1999)

Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger 1999
ISBN 0-73820-431-5
Insight on the web's impact on business

Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999)

Lawrence Lessig, Basic Books 1999,
ISBN-0-465-03912-X
A most perceptive author and engaging speaker.

Inventing the Internet (1999)

Age of Spiritual Machines --
When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (2000)

The Difference Engine (2000)

Engines of Logic (2000)

The Future of Ideas -- The fate of the
commons in a connected world (2001)

Lawrence Lessig, Random House 2001,
ISBN 0-375-50578-4
Major concern for imposition of intellectual property rights,
owning thoughts, in contrast with the openness of the internet.

Small Pieces Loosely Joined --
(a unified theory of the web) (2002)

David Weinberger, Perseus Books 2002
ISBN 0-7382-0543-5
Deals with the human aspects of the web in a challenging way.

Designing World-Class E-Learning (2002)

Roger C. Schank, Ph.D.
copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Creating experiential, Learning-by-doing environments
on the web. A learning revolutionary's approach
to building a highly skilled workforce.

The Dream Machine (2002)

Licklider had a great deal to do with the Internet.
He was almost alone in his conviction that computers can
become joyful machines: toiols that will serve as new media of
expression, inspirations to creativity,
and gateways to the vast world of online information.

Ethics, Law, Computer Software (2002)

Selected Essays of Richard Stallman
GNU Press, 2002,
ISBN 1-882114-98-1
On the free software foundation.

The Invisible Future (2002)

Peter J. Denning, editor, McGraw-Hill 2002,
ISBN-0-07-1-138224-0.
Essays by many computer folks that we've respected
and learned from over the years.

Marshall McLuhan -- Understanding Me (2003)

Lectures and Interviews
Edited by Stephanie McLuhan and David Staines
First MIT Press paperback edition, 2005
Copyright © Stephanie McLuhan, 2003
ISBN: 0-262-13442-X (hc.)
0-262-63317-5 (pb.)
19 chapters
Forward by Tom Wolfe

Free Culture (2004)

The Singularity is Near (2005)

The World Is Flat (2005)

A brief history of the twenty-first century
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Copyright © 2005 by Thomas L. Friedman
ISBN-13: 978-0-374-29288-1
ISBN-10: 0-374-29288-4 (Hardcover: alk. paper)
The "flattening" of the globe asks if the world
has gotten too small and too fast for human
beings and their political systems to adjust
in a stable manner. It addresses globalization,
its successes and discontents.

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