By BUMPY
Added: Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:04:40 UTC

Hi

Ever since Richard Dawkins opened my eyes to the beauty of science in The Selfish Gene, I have expanded my horizons about evolution (mostly through Dawkins books), physics and cosmology (through a variety of authors) and to some extent philosophy (through a couple of Dennett's books). I have also started looking at/thinking about maths.

I now want to breach another field: Computing. However, I can't find a book that's not about trying to teach you to operate a computer - which I can do as well as the average 21 year old university student. What I want, is to understand how computers actually work. I also want to know the history behind these marvellous devices.

I have a few sketchy ideas about these questions, but I want to a proper account, introduced and explained in a lucid way. Basically, I want the equivalent of Lawrence Krauss' Fear of Physics: A guide for the Perplexed, but for computers.

I would be very grateful to anyone who can tell me of such a book!

Thanks.

TAGGED: BOOKS