As historical processes increasingly become steeped in technology, it becomes more necessary for a discipline to emerge that is capable of comprehending these materialities to better understand the fields they inundate such as science, art, and warfare. This effort is further compromised by the inherent complexity and complete arbitrariness of technical languages-especially when they are algorithmic-along with the rapid pace in which they become obsolete, unintelligible, or simply forgotten. The Turing Machine plays a central role in the Archaeology of Algorithmic Artefacts, wherein the gradual developments of the individual components encompassed by this complex technology are placed within the context of engineering sciences and the history of inventions. This genealogy also traces the origin of the computer in mathematics, meta-mathematics, combinatorics, cryptology, philosophy, and physics. The investigations reveal that the history of apparatuses that process signs is in no way limited to the second half of the twentieth century; rather, it is possible they existed at all times and in all cultures.

About the Author

David Link is a free researcher and artist based in Cologne, Germany. In 2012, he received the Tony Sale Award for Computer Restoration from the British Computer Conservation Society for "LoveLetters_1.0," which was presented at the international contemporary art exhibition dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Germany.

Reviews

"Aficionados of computing history will find this book very appealing."-CHOICE

Book Information
ISBN 9781937561048
Author David Link
Format Paperback
Page Count 236
Imprint Univocal Publishing LLC
Publisher Univocal Publishing LLC
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 171mm * 25mm