Pebbles to Computers: The Thread

Pebbles to Computers: The Thread by Beer, Stafford. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780195405361.

Using an exciting synthesis of text and pictures, photographer Hans Blohm and scientist Stafford Beers present a graphic exploration of the connections between prehistoric and antique technologies and those of our modern world. In this inventive book, a Byzantine sun-dial and a modern satellite signal receiver are among the many images that have been chosen to show the thread connecting our efforts down the ages to use and record information. The story of computation emerges as the central theme. By tracing its development from the earliest use of pebbles through the abacus, the slide rule and finally to the most sophisticated modern circuits, the authors present a convincing argument that high tech does indeed go back to the dawn of time. Blohm and Beers have travelled from Stonehenge to the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico, marvelled over Leonardos inventions in Milan and examined Leibnizs calculator in Hanover in their search for evidence of the patterns of human invention. They isolate some critical issues in the development of technology, such as the reproduction of written language, and cover many of the outstanding names: Archimedes, Caxton, Pascal, Babbage and Turing among others. With an introduction by renowned zoologist David Suzuki, Pebbles to Computers is a remarkable testament to the depth and richness of humanitys technological achievements.