There's a hidden science that affects every part of your life. You are fluent in its terminology of email, WiFi, social networking, and encryption. You use its results when you make a telephone call, access the Internet, use any factory-produced product, or travel in any modern car. The discipline is so new that some prefer to call it a branch of engineering or mathematics. But it is so powerful and world-changing that you would be hard-pressed to find a single human being on the planet unaffected by its achievements. The science of computers enables the supply and creation of power, food, water, medicine, transport, money, communication, entertainment, and most goods in shops. It has transformed societies with the Internet, the digitization of information, mobile phone networks and GPS technologies. Here, Peter J. Bentley explores how this young discipline grew from its theoretical conception by pioneers such as Turing, through its growth spurts in the Internet, its difficult adolescent stage where the promises of AI were never achieved and dot-com bubble burst, to its current stage as a (semi)mature field, now capable of remarkable achievements. Charting the successes and failures of computer science through the years, Bentley discusses what innovations may change our world in the future.

◎作者简介：

彼得•本特利(Peter J. Bentley)，《连线》杂志特约编辑。英国伦敦大学学院（UCL）计算机系教授、荣誉资深研究员。本特利是一个特立独行的计算机科学家，以创造性思维和具有广泛影响力的研究著称。研究领域包括人工智能、演化运算、生物群体智能，以及其他数字科技领域的相关研究。著述颇丰，并被翻译成其他语言广泛传播。著有The Undercover Scientist, Digital Biology等。

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