The Science of Computation - Update #3

Hey!

This is a short update to inform you that a new draft of The Science of Computation is ready to download. As usual, premium subscribers to Mostly Harmless Ideas will get a link at the end to get it for free.

And just for today, you can get the Early Access Pass for 50% off.

If this is your first time hearing about TSOC, here’s a brief intro.

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The Science of Computation

What is an algorithm? How does a computer work? Can computers do anything, or do they have inherent limitations? What is the Internet, and how can videos be streamed from one side of the world to the other in almost real-time? How is software made? What is artificial intelligence, and will it ever surpass us?

This book tries to answer these and many other related questions. In the next few hundred pages, I’ll take you on a journey across computer science's most important topics and themes. We will meet many of its most significant figures—from Alan Turing, Edger Djikstra, and Donald Knuth to Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCunn—and see how they came up with some of the most brilliant ideas in the science of computation.

We will dive into some of the most fascinating discoveries in Computer Science, from the neural networks that power large language models to the packet-switching protocols that make the Internet possible. We will learn how computers work, in and out, why they are so powerful, and their intrinsic limitations. In the end, you will gain a big-picture understanding of the whole field of Computer Science. This book contains no complicated math or code.

There are no prerequisites to reading it, although it is perhaps better suited for high school-level students or older because some computer science concepts are somewhat sophisticated and rely on intuitions that students form around that age. It is also a perfect companion for a Computer Science major, as it complements the more theoretically or technically oriented bibliography you will encounter in college textbooks.

The book has five parts covering all of Computer Science:

1. Foundations of Computation: a tour around the foundational ideas in CS, including the Turing machine and the P vs NP problem.

2. Algorithms and Data Structures: an exploration of the fundamental algorithms and data structures in CS.

3. Computational Systems: a journey from the essential components of a computer to the whole Internet.

4. Software Engineering: a look at what it takes to make software that works.

5. Artificial Intelligence: a broad overview of the most exciting field in Computer Science.

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And that’s it for today. For premium subscribers, you will find a link below to get the Early Access Pass for free.

PS: If you already got an Early Access Pass for TSOC, before it was hosted on Gumroad, reply to this email and I’ll send you the right link right away :)