About

The author with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak

This blog supports my book "The Universal Machine - from the dawn of computing to digital consciousness" published by Springer Copernicus Books in their popular science series in 2012. It contains posts related to the history and future of computing. However, it also contain opinions and thoughts on computing in general and links to the resources that I used in the book, plus many that I didn't.
    The book is a history of the computer concluding with a look over the horizon at what may come in the near and not so near future. The book uses Alan Turing’s idea of the computer as a “universal machine” as its unifying theme.  The computer is unlike other inventions in that it is universal in the sense that you can use a computer to do many different tasks: write documents, compose music, design buildings, create movies, inhabit virtual worlds, play games, communicate with friends...
    Listen to a radio interview that I gave recently on Radio New Zealand's National Programme about the book (click here for alternate formats to stream or download).

   The readers of this book are a general readership from teenagers to adults with an interest in computing, science, history and society. The book sits along side popular science titles but is also be suitable as an introductory text book for those studying history of computing courses.