The Logician and the Engineer
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Narrated by:
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Allan Robertson
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By:
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Paul J. Nahin
About this listen
Boolean algebra, also called Boolean logic, is at the heart of the electronic circuitry in everything we use - from our computers and cars, to our kitchen gadgets and home appliances. How did a system of mathematics established in the Victorian era become the basis for such incredible technological achievements a century later? In The Logician and the Engineer, best-selling popular math writer Paul Nahin combines engaging problems and a colorful historical narrative to tell the remarkable story of how two men in different eras - mathematician and philosopher George Boole (1815-1864) and electrical engineer and pioneering information theorist Claude Shannon (1916-2001) - advanced Boolean logic and became founding fathers of the electronic communications age.
Presenting the dual biographies of Boole and Shannon, Nahin examines the history of Boole's innovative ideas, and considers how they led to Shannon's groundbreaking work on electrical relay circuits and information theory. Along the way, Nahin presents logic problems for listeners to solve and talks about the contributions of such key players as Georg Cantor, Tibor Rado, and Marvin Minsky - as well as the crucial role of Alan Turing's "Turing machine" - in the development of mathematical logic and data transmission. Nahin takes listeners from fundamental concepts to a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of how a modern digital machine such as the computer is constructed. Nahin also delves into the newest ideas in quantum mechanics and thermodynamics in order to explore computing's possible limitations in the 21st century and beyond.
The Logician and the Engineer shows how a form of mathematical logic and the innovations of two men paved the way for the digital technology of the modern world.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2012 Princeton University Press (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
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A good overview of scientific theory
- By MJ Walters on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
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A Mind at Play
- How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
- By: Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
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I wanted more information about Information Theory
- By Bonny on 05-08-18
By: Rob Goodman, and others
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Is God a Mathematician?
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true.
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Origins of Mathematics
- By Rick B on 07-08-21
By: Mario Livio
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The Master Algorithm
- How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
- By: Pedro Domingos
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the aegis of machine learning in our data-driven machine age, computers are programming themselves and learning about - and solving - an extraordinary range of problems, from the mundane to the most daunting. Today it is machine learning programs that enable Amazon and Netflix to predict what users will like, Apple to power Siri's ability to understand voices, and Google to pilot cars.
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Great book, irritating narration
- By N. G. PEPIN on 09-24-15
By: Pedro Domingos
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Undeniable
- How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed
- By: Douglas Axe
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout his distinguished and unconventional career, engineer-turned-molecular-biologist Douglas Axe has been asking the questions that much of the scientific community would rather silence. Now, he presents his conclusions in this brave and pioneering book. Axe argues that the key to understanding our origin is the "design intuition" - the innate belief held by all humans that tasks we would need knowledge to accomplish can be accomplished only by someone who has that knowledge.
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Seductively Challenge what are consider facts
- By Rafael Vila on 10-08-16
By: Douglas Axe
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What Is Real?
- The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
- By: Adam Becker
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments.
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Good, "light" "read"... potential caveat below...
- By James S. on 03-31-18
By: Adam Becker
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Spooky Action at a Distance
- The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time-and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
- By: George Musser
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally stop to ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time. The phenomenon - the ability of one particle to affect another instantly across the vastness of space - appears to be almost magical.
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Rambling but Asks Good Questions
- By Michael on 12-19-15
By: George Musser
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Paradox
- The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics
- By: Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history, scientists have come up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. These we call paradoxes. The paradoxes Al-Khalili offers are drawn chiefly from physics and astronomy and represent those that have stumped some of the finest minds. With elegant explanations that bring the listener inside the mind of those who've developed them, Al-Khalili helps us to see that, in fact, paradoxes can be solved if seen from the right angle.
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Almost Useless
- By Michael on 06-19-19
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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Einstein and the Quantum
- The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
- By: A. Douglas Stone
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light - the core of what we now know as quantum theory - than he did about relativity.
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educational and fun
- By Amjad on 12-04-13
By: A. Douglas Stone
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Dance of the Photons
- From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation
- By: Anton Zeilinger
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Einstein's steadfast refusal to accept certain aspects of quantum theory was rooted in his insistence that physics has to be about reality. Accordingly, he once derided as spooky action at a distance the notion that two elementary particles far removed from each other could nonetheless influence each others propertiesa hypothetical phenomenon his fellow theorist Erwin Schrdinger termed quantum entanglement.
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Brilliant author tries hard, but comes up short...
- By Michael on 07-27-12
By: Anton Zeilinger
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Our Mathematical Universe
- My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: Max Tegmark
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy, and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist.
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Wow!
- By Michael on 02-02-14
By: Max Tegmark
What listeners say about The Logician and the Engineer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cybernion
- 05-30-21
Decent book, but not suitable for audio
Reading of equations is tiresome and makes the audio interminably long. Other than that, the performance was good.
The technology is somewhat dated, with the exception of the basic timeless principles and the introduction of quantum logic. in particular, a few statements, such as the popularity of J-K flip-flops, really didn't age well.
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- R. Winchester
- 09-16-16
Translate equations into sentences or don't read them
Please don't read long & involved equations - it's impossible to follow when the speaker clearly has no idea what it's about. Things like Dot dot dot! It's like spelling out the letters in a word instead of saying that same word.
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- yegorius
- 05-03-24
I was not prepared
This is not a history book. This is not even a book for computer or electrical engineering enthusiasts. This is a textbook and should have never been released in audio format.
But-by god!-did the narrator try his best! He did an excellent job making this dry material sound as good as he did.
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- Jean
- 12-14-12
Boolean Algebra
This is a book that would have been better if I read it instead of listen or it would be a good book for the e-book with whisper-sync. It was a bit hard to follow unless I took notes. Paul Nahin covered the innovative ideas and history of mathematician George Boole (1815-1864) and electrical engineer Claude Shannon (1918-2001). The book explained classic logic vs Boolean logic in depth. He also covered how Boolean algebra is the bases of electronic circuitry that everything today works on. He covered a great deal on data transmission and its importance in day to day live. The world would not function without this innovated body of work. Allan Robertson did a good job narrating the book.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-17-23
imperfect, but well worth a try.
there are precious few books about this very fascinating subject. if you have the time to fight through the obtuse writing style and lack of editing, reading this book I think can be very very worthwhile and rewarding.
but be forewarned, this is a very idiosyncratic book, it is full of what the author thinks are jokes and very unclear style. the entire first section is so unclear about what the subject of the book is that for a long time I had simply put the book down thinking that the title of the book was completely incorrect about what the book was about. but eventually the book actually is about George Boole Claude Shannon information theory, and a lot of very good content.
with no alternative books about this topic available, maybe we should be glad it's not worse.
yes there are equations, but if you deal with code and equations every day then you can deal with hearing somebody read them and just shrug it off. it's not the end of the world. some other reviews actually suggest that the book should not be available to anyone because it contains equations.
how about if you don't want to buy it then don't buy it, but please please please have more technical books available for people who do want them.
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- John Hayes
- 12-26-17
Wonderful!
From logic to information theory and computing circuits -- all the things I love in one excellent book! I have the audiobook and the hardback and for me, this is one of my favorite books.
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- Kent
- 03-16-14
Not every book should be an audiobook
What disappointed you about The Logician and the Engineer?
The book had lots of equations that were read number for number - I'm evidently too slow to follow when I'm listening to it on the way to work.
Would you ever listen to anything by Paul J. Nahin again?
No, the material wasn't suited for an audio recording. I would be afraid of the same problem for any book written by this guy.
What didn’t you like about Allan Robertson’s performance?
The narrator was fine, but the material was really dry.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Logician and the Engineer?
To translate it to an audiobook, more story and less equations would keep it more interesting.
Any additional comments?
I'm really interested in learning about Claude Shannon, but this book didn't really help. It's probably more interesting as a written book.
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1 person found this helpful