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Ask HN: Anything Like Carl Sagan's Cosmos for Computer Science?

32 points by leksak ↗ HN
Is there anything like Carl Sagan's Cosmos that talks about the history of computing in an accessible way? Pondering Christmas gifts for my niece.

20 comments

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ljw1001
Neither of these is exactly what you asked for, but both are awesome in their own way, and both are (narrow and somewhat dated) histories:

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy.

The Pulitzer Prize Winning) The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder. The second one literally changed my life in leading me to computers.

Links: https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution-An...

https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316...

cellularmitosis
Brian Cantrill also enthusiastically recommended Soul of a New Machine.
jambulance
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy absolutely changed my life when I found it as a young boy in the local library. Possibly the most read book on my bookshelf!
boatsock
Code by Charles Petzold would be the best in my opinion.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softw...

napsterbr
+1. Great gift for non-technical friends/relatives. It does get at a technical depth of computer organization and stuff, but it has a nice gradual intro. But if op focus is computer science history, there may be better options (don't know which ones, and Code does share some history detail, but not that much. It should get your niece interested in computer science though).
westurner
Computer #History: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer

Outline of Computer Engineering #History of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_computer_engineerin...

History of Computer Science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_science

Outline of Computer Science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_computer_science

History of the Internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

History of the World Wide Web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web

westurner
... maybe a bit OT; but, interestingly, IDK if any of these include a history section:

#K12CSFramework (Practices, Concepts): https://k12cs.org

- "Impacts of Computing" (Culture; Social Interactions; Safety, Law, and Ethics): https://k12cs.org/framework-statements-by-progression/#jump-...

"Competencies and Tasks on the Path to Human-Level AI" (Perception, Actuation, Memory, Learning, Reasoning, Planning, Attention, Motivation, Emotion, Modeling Self and Other, Social Interaction, Communication, Quantitative, Building/Creation): http://wiki.opencog.org/w/CogPrime_Overview#Competencies_and...

Code.org (#HourOfCode): https://code.org/learn

brudgers
Not really in keeping with the idea of a gift suitable for a niece.
westurner
No, but particulary more comprehensive and informative than any one video. These links (to #OER) would be useful for anyone intending to try and replicate the form and style of the "Cosmos" video series with Computer Science content.
brudgers
Cosmos was also a dead tree book. [1] It was not uncommonly given as a gift.

The original TV series was broadcast the same year as its publication, 1980, but I don't think it was readily available on consumer tape until several years later and then not at normal holiday gift prices. Back in those days, most video libraries were built by the librarian directly recording broadcasts. But most people would just wait for a rebroadcast.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_(Carl_Sagan_book)