Connections: Patterns of Discovery

by H. Peter Alesso; Craig F. Smith

• ISBN13: 9780470191521
• ISBN10: 047019152X
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press

Summary

This book uses a discussion of past developments, an analysis of patterns of discovery, and a debate of prospective technology to synthesize a cohesive and compelling vision. It challenges the reader to think of the consequences of extrapolating trends, such as Moore's Law, to either reach real machine intelligence, or else retrench in the face of physical limitations. From this perspective, the book draws the "big picture" for the Information Revolution's innovations in chips, devices, software and networks. The goal is to forecast ubiquitous intelligence where everyone is connected to devices with access to Artificial Intelligence (AI) -- offering what Google founder Larry Page calls "perfect search."

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Organization of this Book

Connecting Information

The Google Story

Information Revolution

Defining Information

Looking Good

Google Connects Information

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting Information

Connecting Circuits

The Moore' Law Story

Edison's Electric Light

The Vacuum Tube Diode

The First Programmable Computers

ENIAC

The Transistor

How Transistors Work

The Proof of Principle for the Transistor

The Microprocessor

How Microprocessors Work

Moore's law

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting Circuits

Connecting Chips

The Personal Computer Story

Vannevar Bush

Robert Taylor

J.C.R. Licklider

Alan Kay

Butler Lampson

Charles (Chuck) Thacker

Personal Computing

The Xerox Alto

Apple Computer

IBM PC

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting Chips

Connecting Processes

The Software Story

John Von Neumann

Claude Shannon

The Evolution of Programming Languages

Sir Charles Antony Richard (Tony) Hoare

Software as an Industry

Software Productivity

Fourth Generation Languages

Proprietary versus Open Standards

Emergent Fifth Generation Languages (5GLs)

Charles Simonyi

William H. Gates

Linus Torvalds

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting Processes

Connecting Machines

The Ethernet Story

Xerox PARC and Ethernet

Robert Metcalf

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting Machines

Connecting Networks

The Internet Story

Vint Cerf

Transition to the World Wide Web

Berners-Lee

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting Machines

Connecting Devices

The Ubiquitous Computing Story

Ubiquitous Computing

Mark Weiser

Jeff Hawkins

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting Devices

Connecting the Web

The Ubiquitous Web Story

Michael Dertouzos

Project Oxygen

Perfect Search

Berners-Lee and the Semantic Web

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting the Web

Connecting the Intelligence

The Ubiquitous Intelligence Story

Kurt Gödel

Alan Turing

Marvin Minsky

Ubiquitous Intelligence

The Web 'Brain'

What is Web Intelligence?

Patterns of Discovery

Forecast for Connecting Intelligence

Connecting Patterns

Ray Kurzweil

Evolving Complex Intelligence

The Law of Accelerating Returns

Singularities

The Software of Intelligence

Patterns

Connecting Pattern

Patterns of Discovery

Forecasts for Connecting Patterns

Epilog

Bibliography

Glossary

Index

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