Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata First Edition - John von Neumann - Bauman Rare Books

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Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata

John von NEUMANN

Item#: 82807 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata

VON NEUMANN ON AUTOMATA, FIRST EDITION

NEUMANN, John von. Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. Edited and Completed by Arthur W. Burks. Urbana and London: University of Illinois Press, 1966. Octavo, original olive cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of von Neumann’s important contribution to computer design.

John von Neumann has been called “one of the last people able to span the fields of pure and applied mathematics,” with contributions to quantum physics, meteorology, hydrodynamics, topology, logic, and computer science. In the last years of his life, von Neumann expanded upon his work on computers to include the theory of automata, “in a kind of synthesis of his early interest in logic and his later work on computers… As usual he brought remarkably new ideas in the approach to solutions of these problems and must be considered one of the founders of a flourishing new mathematical discipline” (DSB). Owner signature.

An exceptional copy in fine condition.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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