O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference - March 6-9, 2006

Keynote

Turing's Cathedral

George Dyson, Independent, Historian of Technology

Date: Wednesday, March 08
Time: 11:45am - 12:15pm
Location: Elizabeth Ballroom ABCD

The digital universe was conceived by Old Testament prophets (led by Leibniz) who supplied the logic, and delivered by New Testament prophets (led by von Neumann) who supplied the machines. Alan Turing (1912-1954) formed the bridge between the two.

This presentation will examine the current state of the digital universe in light of what the prophets have been saying over the years.

Once-radical speculations about artificial intelligence, non-von-Neumann architectures, reliable computation from unreliable elements, and the success of template-based addressing in biology, are driving the current proliferation of metazoan codes.