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Ask HN: Favourite science history book of the 20th century?

9•bawis•12h ago
I like the anecdotes and interesting lives of 20th century mathematicians/computer scientist, suggest me please your favourite history book about them.

Comments

bigyabai•12h ago
Summa Technologiae
golly_ned•11h ago
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.
rochansinha•10h ago
The Maniac, by Benjamin Labatut. It’s a fictionalised biography of John von Nuemann and the birth of artificial intelligence. Amazing , surreal and unique
pmdulaney•8h ago
How creative to think of writing such a thing! But von Meumann is a big enough intellect and personality to sustain it.
andyjohnson0•10h ago
The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop
SoleilAbsolu•10h ago
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.
leobg•10h ago
The Faber Book of Science (Carey) Asimov’s New Guide to Science (Asimov) The Great Influenza (Barry)
ahazred8ta•8h ago
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

kamphey•5h ago
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.
NishanStepak•4h ago
Technics and Civilization by Lewis Mumford and Critical Path by R Buckminster Fuller

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