Computation for Humanity

Preface

Through the ages, indeed millennia, humans have been exceptionally ingenious and adept at exploiting nature to develop tools for their benefit. Understanding nature better is thus nothing short of a guarantee for the development of novel tools. Never before had this been put on display as prominently as with the formulation of a fundamental scientific approach to the study of nature (Chapter 13). The systematic development of knowledge that derives from such study provided a rapidly expanding body of intelligence to the avail of technological exploitation. It should come as no surprise that humanity indeed capitalized on the technological opportunities like never before in history (e.g., steam engine, reciprocating engine, and pendulum ...