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The Pattern on the Stone

The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work

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The Pattern on the Stone

By: W. Daniel Hillis
Narrated by: Lewis Arlt
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About this listen

Most people are baffled by how computers work and assume that they will never understand them. What they don't realize - and what Daniel Hillis' short book brilliantly demonstrates - is that computers' seemingly complex operations can be broken down into a few simple parts that perform the same simple procedures over and over again. Computer wizard Hillis offers an easy-to-follow explanation of how data is processed that makes the operations of a computer seem as straightforward as those of a bicycle.

Avoiding technobabble or discussions of advanced hardware, the lucid explanations and colorful anecdotes in The Pattern on the Stone go straight to the heart of what computers really do. Hillis proceeds from an outline of basic logic to clear descriptions of programming languages, algorithms, and memory. He then takes listeners in simple steps up to the most exciting developments in computing today - quantum computing, parallel computing, neural networks, and self-organizing systems.

Written clearly and succinctly by one of the world's leading computer scientists, The Pattern on the Stone is an indispensable guide to understanding the workings of that most ubiquitous and important of machines: the computer.

©1998 W.D. Hillis (P)2018 Recorded Books Computer Science Sociology
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A wonderful, wonderful book. Despite being fairly short, the author manages to convey incredibly complex ideas with remarkable simplicity. Highly recommended.

Superb

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I wish I got the book instead. The audiobook is not accompanied by a pdf which I think would get very handy as some descriptions were difficult to follow of otherwise fairly simple diagrams/lines of code.

Fantastic introduction to computer logic and architecture but I’d get the book instead

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