Ask HN: Favourite science history book of the 20th century?
9 points
13 hours ago
| 10 comments
| HN
I like the anecdotes and interesting lives of 20th century mathematicians/computer scientist, suggest me please your favourite history book about them.
hash0
15 minutes ago
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"Cosmos" by Carl Sagan - that book was a life changer for me and has been with me ever since.
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ahazred8ta
9 hours ago
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James Burke's book version of 'Connections' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55024.Connections

Also Douglas Coupland's 'Microserfs', described as "Here's a guy who seems to have spent a week with engineers and effortlessly absorbed everything that is important about engineering culture, everything that matters about working at a big company, and everything that matters about working at a startup." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2748.Microserfs

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golly_ned
12 hours ago
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Turing's cathedral, on the invention and development of the earliest digital computers just before, during, and after WWII. Lots of excellent detail, descriptions of the personalities and relationships of many interesting people, like von Neumann.
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kamphey
6 hours ago
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Might sound silly but I LOVE: Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections. They single handedly made me interested in how things were made, how things were on the inside. How things were engineered.
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NishanStepak
5 hours ago
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Technics and Civilization by Lewis Mumford and Critical Path by R Buckminster Fuller
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SoleilAbsolu
11 hours ago
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Richard Hamming's "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn" is an insider's (Manhattan Project, Bell Labs) view of how computer science as we know it developed.
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rochansinha
11 hours ago
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The Maniac, by Benjamin Labatut. It’s a fictionalised biography of John von Nuemann and the birth of artificial intelligence. Amazing , surreal and unique
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pmdulaney
9 hours ago
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How creative to think of writing such a thing! But von Meumann is a big enough intellect and personality to sustain it.
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leobg
11 hours ago
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The Faber Book of Science (Carey) Asimov’s New Guide to Science (Asimov) The Great Influenza (Barry)
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andyjohnson0
11 hours ago
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The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop
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bigyabai
13 hours ago
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Summa Technologiae
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hash0
15 minutes ago
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Agreed, but with one caveat: That is the book detailling the history of future science!
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