Nine Algorithms that Changed the Future cover art

Nine Algorithms that Changed the Future

The Ingenious Ideas that Drive Today's Computers: Princeton Science Library

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Nine Algorithms that Changed the Future

By: John MacCormick
Narrated by: Quentin Cooper
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £10.99

Buy Now for £10.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

This audiobook narrated by Quentin Cooper explains the tricks behind nine revolutionary algorithms that power our computers and smartphones

Every day, we use our computers to perform remarkable feats. A simple web search picks out a handful of relevant needles from the world's biggest haystack. Uploading a photo to Facebook transmits millions of pieces of information over numerous error-prone network links, yet somehow a perfect copy of the photo arrives intact. Without even knowing it, we use public-key cryptography to transmit secret information like credit card numbers, and we use digital signatures to verify the identity of the websites we visit.

How do our computers perform these tasks with such ease? John MacCormick answers this question in language anyone can understand, using vivid examples to explain the fundamental tricks behind nine computer algorithms that power our PCs, tablets, and smartphones.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 John MacCormick (P)2020 Princeton University Press Computer Science Machine Theory & Artificial Intelligence Programming Programming & Software Development Software Development Technology Software Computer Security

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Python Programming cover art
Machine Learning for Smart Learners cover art
Functional Programming in Scala cover art
Investigating Cryptocurrencies cover art
Classic Computer Science Problems in Python cover art
Once Upon an Algorithm cover art
Natural Language Processing in Action: Understanding, Analyzing, and Generating Text with Python cover art
Deep Learning with PyTorch cover art
The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition cover art
Learn Python Programming cover art
Data Science from Scratch cover art
Clean Code cover art
Designing Data-Intensive Applications cover art
The Intelligent Web cover art
Deep Learning with Python cover art
Grokking Algorithms cover art

Critic reviews

"A great way to find out what computer science is really about.... MacCormick provides a taste of why we computer scientists get so excited about algorithms." (Paul Curzon, Science)

"There's likely no better account of the software that underpins everything from Amazon to Facebook." (Brett Szmajda, Cosmos)

"MacCormick leaves the reader with a sense of the engine that powers the networked world." (Kevin Slavin, New Scientist)

"Excellent.... This is an unusually well-written text suitable for anyone with an interest in how today's information systems really work." (John Gilbey, Times Higher Education)

All stars
Most relevant
The concept is good, content well selected however it really doesn't work as an audiobook. Quentin Cooper does his best but it's difficult to get across the workings of the algorithms in speech.

Audiobook is a poor format for this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.