Turing's Cathedral
Turing's Cathedral by George Dysonby George Dyson
Ranked 5 of 9 computer history books by recommenders
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.
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.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Detailed history of stored-program computers
“This book is fantastic. Highly recommended if you have any interest in how the stored program computer came to be.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “A Man from the Future: Why Johnny Can't Stop Abstracting” “it covers von Nuemann’s time developing the IAS machine at Princeton.”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “The Legend of von Neumann (1973) [pdf]” “covers this and much more”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Los Alamos bets on ENIAC: Nuclear Monte Carlo simulations, 1947–1948 (2014) [pdf]” Vivid portraits of key people
“Lots of excellent detail, descriptions of the personalities and relationships of many interesting people”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Ask HN: Favourite science history book of the 20th century?” “It's a kind of broad biography of all the great minds that started the computer age.”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “The Legend of von Neumann (1973) [pdf]” Fun anecdotes and engaging narrative
“Highly recommended, there is a fun anecdote in there that resembles rowhammer”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “The Legend of von Neumann (1973) [pdf]” “The audiobook was fantastic”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “A Man from the Future: Why Johnny Can't Stop Abstracting”
Other computer history books people recommend
The four most recommended other computer history books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Soul of a New Machineby Tracy Kidder | 59 | 0 | 100% | 8 | 28 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| The Old New Thingby Raymond Chen | 31 | 1 | 97% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Accidental Empiresby Bob Cringely | 15 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| A History of Lisp | 11 | 3 | 79% | 1 | — | — |
| Turing's Cathedralby George DysonThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I saw your recommendation in another von Neumann thread and ended up buying both books.”
“This book is fantastic. Highly recommended if you have any interest in how the stored program computer came to be.”
“The audiobook was fantastic”
“the subject of George Dyson’s book “Turing’s Cathedral”, recommended”
“Highly recommended, there is a fun anecdote in there that resembles rowhammer”
“it covers von Nuemann’s time developing the IAS machine at Princeton.”
“It's a kind of broad biography of all the great minds that started the computer age.”
“covers this and much more”
“Lots of excellent detail, descriptions of the personalities and relationships of many interesting people”
“It really opened my eyes to American engineering craft post WWW II.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.