The First Five Kilobytes Are the Hardest By George Dyson

TAGNW Presents:

Local historian George Dyson dives into the history of computing. Alan Turing’s one-dimensional model of universal computation of 1936 led directly to John von Neumann’s five-kilobyte, two-dimensional implementation of 1946. The resulting ever-expanding address matrix remains a monument to the ingenuity of the small group of engineers who achieved the physical realization of these ideas--and a reminder that they also envisioned computational paths that have yet to be explored.

GEORGE DYSON, a resident of Bellingham since 1989, is an independent historian whose subjects have included the Aleutian kayak (Baidarka, 1986), a natural history of artificial intelligence (Darwin Among the Machines, 1997), a path not taken into space (Project Orion, 2002), the origins of the digital universe (Turing’s Cathedral, 2012), and why analog computing is destined to regain control (Analogia, 2020).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

TBD, Bellingham, United States