# Turing's Cathedral by George Dyson

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Turing's Cathedral by George Dyson and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a detailed account of how the stored-program computer was built, with vivid portraits of the people involved, including von Neumann's IAS machine at Princeton.

## Why people recommend it

- Detailed history of stored-program computers (3 comments): "This book is fantastic. Highly recommended if you have any interest in how the stored program computer came to be." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50254062)) "it covers von Nuemann’s time developing the IAS machine at Princeton." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49936439)) "covers this and much more" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49923314))
- Vivid portraits of key people (2 comments): "Lots of excellent detail, descriptions of the personalities and relationships of many interesting people" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48982848)) "It's a kind of broad biography of all the great minds that started the computer age." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49935617))
- Fun anecdotes and engaging narrative (2 comments): "Highly recommended, there is a fun anecdote in there that resembles rowhammer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49943629)) "The audiobook was fantastic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50251416))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder](https://hackerapproved.com/p/soul-of-a-new-machine.md): 59 recommend
- [The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/old-new-thing.md): 31 recommend
- [Accidental Empires by Bob Cringely](https://hackerapproved.com/p/accidental-empires.md): 15 recommend
- [A History of Lisp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/technical-history-book-on-lisp.md): 11 recommend
- [The Friendly Orange Glow by Brian Dear](https://hackerapproved.com/p/friendly-orange-glow.md): 7 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375422773?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780375422775) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Turing's Cathedral by George Dyson", https://hackerapproved.com/p/turing-s-cathedral/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).