The Top 50 Documents Ever
[ Here is my set of choices for the top documents ever, in roughly chronological order. I am using the OED's definition of a document as "a piece of written, printed, or electronic matter that provides information or evidence". I make no claim to any supremacy for this list, it's just mine, and yours is yours. Sort of like different kinds of beer.
The main links in this document take you to Wikipedia entries or other web pages that describe these documents in some detail, with plenty of links for further perusal. The descriptions shown in sans-serif font are quotes from those and other links, interspersed with my comments shown in serif font and [ ]s, like this paragraph. ]
The main links in this document take you to Wikipedia entries or other web pages that describe these documents in some detail, with plenty of links for further perusal. The descriptions shown in sans-serif font are quotes from those and other links, interspersed with my comments shown in serif font and [ ]s, like this paragraph. ]
- The Dictionary (Prehistoric)
A dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. Many dictionaries also provide pronunciation information, word derivations, histories, or etymologies, illustrations, usage guidance, and examples in sentences.
[ As soon as you have any document, the most important document is the document that tells you how to read any document. Look again at that set of things dictionaries do, in addition to definitions. Webster's and the OED are on-line. ] - The Atlas of Earth (Prehistoric)
An atlas is a collection of maps, traditionally bound into book form, but also found in multimedia formats [...]. As well as geographic features and political boundaries, many often feature geopolitical, social, religious and economic statistics. The name "atlas" derives from the traditional custom of adorning the cover or title page of such collections with a picture of the Atlas of Greek mythology holding the Earth on his shoulders.
This usage of the term dates from Gerardus Mercator's Atlas Sive Cosmographicae (Atlas, or Description of the Universe) ca. 1590. The earliest known atlas was Ptolemy's Geography in 150.
[ National Geographic's Atlas of the World is available on-line, as is Google Maps. ] - The Bible ( 6,000 BC - 150 AD )
[ The Pentateuch or Book of Genesis was probably written about 6,000 BC. The Second Epistle of Peter was probably written about 150 AD.
All the classic theology texts are basically about the art of living, and all contain valueable lessons. However, the Bible got printed by Gutenberg, so as a document it gets on the list first. Here is the first page of the Gutenberg Genesis. ] - Sun Tzu's The Art of War (ca. 600 BC)
The Art of War ( 孫子兵法 ) was a Chinese military text written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics prior to the collapse of Imperial China.
[ An on-line version is available. ] - Plato's Republic (ca. 400 BC)
The Republic is perhaps Plato's best-known dialogue and one of his most influential. In it, he explains, through the character of Socrates, the fundamentals of his political philosophy (presented, stylistically, via the concept of a Utopia), his ethics, and his theory of universals (the 'forms')--among other things. The work is also famous for its literary style: the text is presented as a discussion between Socrates and several other students at a dinner.
The nominal goal of the Republic is to define justice. Given the difficulty of this task, Socrates and his interlocutors are lead into a discussion of justice in the state, which they see as the same as justice in the person, but on a grander (and therefore easier to discuss) scale.
[ Plato's works are available on-line at Project Gutenberg ]. - Aristotle's Organon (ca. 350 BC)
The Organon is the name for Aristotle's collected works on logic. The Organon consists of the following works: - Categories, where Aristotle introduced his 10-fold classification of that which exists;
- On Interpretation, which provides Aristotle's principle contribution to philosophy of language;
- Prior Analytics, where Aristotle introduces his syllogistic method, also known as "term logic";
- Posterior Analytics, where he discusses his syllogistic system, and why it is correct;
- Topics, where he treats issues in constructing valid arguments; and
- On Sophistical Refutations, which treats logical fallacies.
Scientific relevancy of Organon is great: in that we can find the first ontological category theory, the first development of formal logic, the first known serious scientific inquisitions on the theory of reasoning, the foundations of modal logic, and some antecedents of the methodology of science. - Categories, where Aristotle introduced his 10-fold classification of that which exists;
- Euclid's Elements (ca. 300 BC)
Elements is a mathematical treatise, consisting of 13 books, written by the Greek mathematician Euclid. It is a collection of definitions, postulates, and proofs from Euclidean geometry.
It forms the basis of geometry and proved instrumental in the development of logic and modern science. It is also considered the most successful textbook ever written, and is still used as a basic introduction to geometry today. - Archimedes' On the Method of Mechanical Problems (ca. 250 BC)
The ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse was the first mathematician to make explicit use of infinitesimals. His work with infinitesimals is found in the celebrated Archimedes Palimpsest. The palimpsest embodies Archimedes' account of his "mechanical method", so called because it relies on the concepts of torque exerted on a lever and of center of gravity. Both of those concepts were first introduced by Archimedes.
Although the only mathematical tools at its author's disposal were what we might now consider secondary-school geometry, Archimedes used those methods with rare brilliance, explicitly using infinitesimals to solve problems that would now be treated by integral calculus, which was independently reinvented in the 17th century. Among those problems were that of the center of gravity of a solid hemisphere, that of the center of gravity of a frustum of a circular paraboloid, and that of the area of a region bounded by a parabola and one of its secant lines. - Vitruvius' De Architectura (ca. 25 BC)
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He was the author of De Architectura, known today as The Ten Books of Architecture, a treatise in Latin on architecture, and perhaps the first work about this discipline. He is often colloquially referred to as the first architect.
According to the very earliest surviving work on the subject, Vitruvius' De Architectura, a good building should have Beauty (Venustas), Firmness (Firmitas) and Utility (Utilitas); architecture can be said to be a balance and coordination among these three elements, with none overpowering the others.
In Vitruvius' words, "Architecture is a science, arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning: by the help of which a judgement is formed of those works which are the result of other arts".
[ "Beauty, Firmness, and Utility." Wow. ]
- The Magna Carta (1215)
The Magna Carta (Great Charter), written in 1215, is an English charter which limited the power of English Kings, specifically King John, from absolute rule.
In effect the Magna Carta required the king to renounce certain rights and respect certain legal procedures, to accept that the will of the king could be bound by law. It is the first step in a long historical process leading to the rule of constitutional law.
[ This was the beginning of the realization that government is there to serve the people, not to rule them. ] - Leonardo da Vinci's Notebooks (1495)
Perhaps even more impressive than his artistic work are his studies in science and engineering, recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and science.
[ The complete text of da Vinci's Notebooks is available on-line at Project Gutenberg, but the drawings aren't there. There is a nice collection of da Vinci images here. ] - Nicolaus Copernicus' De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543)
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer, mathematician and economist who developed the heliocentric theory of the solar system in a form detailed enough to make it scientifically useful.
Copernicus' theories have an extraordinary relevance in the history of human knowledge. Many authors suggest that only Euclidean geometry, Charles Darwin's Evolutionism, or Newton's physics could have a similar influence on human culture in general and on science in particular.
Many meanings have been seen in his theory, quite apart from its scientific value. His work cut across science and religion, dogmatism and freedom of scientific investigation. His academic standing is often compared with Galileo Galilei. - René Descartes' Discourse on Method (1637)
René Descartes, also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. While most notable for his groundbreaking work in philosophy, he has achieved wide fame as the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system, which influenced the development of modern calculus.
The Discourse on Method is best known as the source of the famous quotation "cogito ergo sum", "I think, therefore I am." In addition, it contains Descartes' first introduction of the Cartesian coordinate system.
This is one of the most influential works in history. It is a method which gives a solid platform from which all modern natural sciences could evolve. With this work, the idea of skepticism was revived from the ancients such as Sextus Empiricus and modified to account for a truth that Descartes found to be incontrovertible. Descartes started his line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions.
Descartes, sometimes called the founder of modern philosophy and the Father of Modern Mathematics, ranks as one of the most important and influential thinkers in modern western history. - Galileo Galilei's Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences (1638)
Galileo Galilei was a Tuscan astronomer, philosopher, and physicist who is closely associated with the scientific revolution. His achievements include improving the telescope, a variety of astronomical observations, the first law of motion, and supporting Copernicanism effectively. He has been referred to as the "father of modern astronomy, " as the "father of modern physics, " and as "father of science.
Two New Sciences was Galileo's final book and a sort of scientific testament covering much of his work in physics over the preceding thirty years.
Unlike the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, it was not published with a license from the Inquisition; after the heresy trial based on the earlier book, the Roman Inquisition had banned publication of any work by Galileo, including any he might write in the future.
The work of Galileo is considered to be a significant break from that of Aristotle. In addition, his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church is taken as a major early example of the conflict of authority and freedom of thought, particularly with science, in Western society. - Isaac Newton's Principia (1687)
The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, often Principia or Principia Mathematica for short) is a three-volume work by Isaac Newton published on July 5, 1687.
Probably the most influential scientific book ever published, it contains the statement of Newton's laws of motion forming the foundation of classical mechanics as well as his law of universal gravitation. - The United States Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. - The Constitution of the United States of America (1787)
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
[...]
Amendment 1, Ratified on 12/15/1791
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
[...]
Amendment 10, Ratified on 12/15/1791
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. - Antoine Lavoisier's Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (1789)
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. He stated the first version of the Law of Conservation of Matter, recognized and named oxygen, disproved the phlogiston theory, and helped to reform chemical nomenclature. Lavoisier is often referred to as the father of modern chemistry.
His Elementary Treatise of Chemistry is considered to be the first modern chemical textbook, and presented a unified view of new theories of chemistry, contained a clear statement of the Law of Conservation of Mass, and denied the existence of phlogiston. Also, Lavoisier clarified the concept of an element as a simple substance that could not be broken down by any known method of chemical analysis, and he devised a theory of the formation of chemical compounds from elements. - Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (1791)
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was an American journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat, and inventor. One of the leaders of the American Revolution, he was well known also for his many quotations and his experiments with electricity.
[ Here's a few of my favourite paragraphs from his autobiography: ]
"Having, in 1742, invented an open stove for the better warming of rooms, and at the same time saving fuel, as the fresh air admitted was warmed in entering, I made a present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of my early friends, who, having an iron-furnace, found the casting of the plates for these stoves a profitable thing, as they were growing in demand.
"To promote that demand, I wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled "An Account of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces; wherein their Construction and Manner of Operation is particularly explained; their Advantages above every other Method of warming Rooms demonstrated; and all Objections that have been raised against the Use of them answered and obviated, " etc.
"This pamphlet had a good effect. Gov'r. Thomas was so pleas'd with the construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declin'd it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously". - Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (1858)
Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, commonly known as Gray's Anatomy, is an anatomy textbook widely considered one of the classic works on human anatomy. The book was first published under the title Gray's Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical in Great Britain in 1858.
[ The first 300 images from Gray's anatomy are available on-line. ] - Charles Darwin's The Origin Of Species (1859)
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by British naturalist Charles Darwin is one of the hallmark works of biology. In it, Darwin detailed his theory that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection. It was first published on November 24, 1859.
Darwin presented a theory of evolution that is, except concerning the inheritance of traits acquired by education in which he still believed, almost identical to the theories now accepted by scientists. He carefully argued out this theory of evolution of species by natural selection by presenting all of the accumulated scientific evidence from his voyage on the HMS Beagle in the 1830s. - John Stuart Mill's On Liberty (1859)
"The subject of this Essay is not the so-called Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of Philosophical Necessity; but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. A question seldom stated, and hardly ever discussed, in general terms, but which profoundly influences the practical controversies of the age by its latent presence, and is likely soon to make itself recognised as the vital question of the future.
It is so far from being new, that, in a certain sense, it has divided mankind, almost from the remotest ages; but in the stage of progress into which the more civilized portions of the species have now entered, it presents itself under new conditions, and requires a different and more fundamental treatment.
[ This is Vitruvius's favourite essay of all time. The link shown above takes you to an excellent on-line version at http://www.bartleby.com/130 ] - James Maxwell's A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field (1864)
James Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish physicist, born in Edinburgh. Maxwell developed a set of equations expressing the basic laws of electricity and magnetism as well as the Maxwell distribution in the kinetic theory of gases.
Maxwell is generally regarded as the nineteenth century scientist who had the greatest influence on twentieth century physics, making contributions to the fundamental models of nature. In 1931, on the centennial anniversary of Maxwell's birth, Einstein described Maxwell's work as the "most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton."
A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field was the third of James Clerk Maxwell's papers concerned with electromagnetism. The theory was the first paper in which Maxwell's equations appeared. The concept of displacement current was introduced, so that it became possible to derive equations of electromagnetic wave.
Maxwell's four equations express, respectively, how electric charges produce electric fields (Gauss' law), the experimental absence of magnetic charges, how currents produce magnetic fields (Ampere's law), and how changing magnetic fields produce electric fields (Faraday's law of induction). Maxwell, was the first to put all four equations together and to notice that a correction was required to Ampere's law: changing electric fields act like currents, likewise producing magnetic fields.
When Maxwell was told on his arrival at Cambridge University that there would be a compulsory 6 a.m. church service, he said, "Aye, I suppose I could stay up that late. - Dmitri Mendeleyev's The Dependence Between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements (1869)
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev was Russian chemist who became known as one of two scientists who created the first version of the periodic table of elements.
Unlike any other contributors to the table, he managed to predict the properties of elements yet to be discovered. In several cases he even ventured to question the correctness of the accepted atomic weights, on the ground that they did not correspond with the Periodic Law, and here also he was justified by subsequent investigation.
- Louis Pasteur's Germ Theory (1878)
Pasteur's method of immunization was effective and was employed by many other physicians, leading to the eradication of the diseases typhus and polio as threats. Pasteurization led to the elimination of contaminated milk and other drinks [ beer ] as sources of disease. In fact, Pasteur inaugurated the modern age of medicine, leading to an increase in the human life span in much of the world. Accordingly, he has been hailed as the "Father of Medicine" and a "Benefactor of Humanity.
[ Pasteur wrote many papers but as far as I know no larger works. I have chosen his Germ Theory and its Applications to Medicine and Surgery document for this list, for its seminal value. ] - The Criminal Code (1892 in Canada)
[ The two central documents relating to the contract that the state plans to enforce between itself and its citizens are its constitution and its criminal code. A balanced constitution contains a charter of rights and freedoms to protect against abuses of the criminal code, such the as the Bill of Rights represented by the first through tenth ammendments of the US constitution mentioned above.
There are a number of classic contenders for criminal codes, most of which I imagine I wouldn't like very much (Hammurabi's comes to mind). The link shown above takes you to an on-line version of the Criminal Code of Canada, of notable import to my personal top documents list, which I'm sorting as dated 1892 per its first deployment. ] - The Merck Manual (1899 &c)
The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy (often referred to simply as the Merck Manual) is one of the world's most widely used medical textbooks. In 1899 it was first published under the name Merck's Manual of the Materia Medica. The current version is the seventeenth edition.
[ Thanks to Merck, the current version is available on-line. ] - Max Planck's On the Law of Distribution of Energy in the Normal Spectrum (1901)
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a German physicist who is considered to be the inventor of quantum theory. In 1899, he discovered a new fundamental constant, which is named Planck's constant, and is, for example, used to calculate the energy of a photon. Planck's constant also occurs in statements of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
One year later, he discovered the law of heat radiation, which is named Planck's law of black body radiation, which he published in 1901 as On the Law of Distribution of Energy in the Normal Spectrum, in Annalen der Physik. This law became the basis of quantum theory, which emerged ten years later in cooperation with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. - The CRC's Handbook of Chemistry & Physics (1913 &c)
The CRC Press was originally founded as the Chemical Rubber Company, which supplied laboratory equipment to chemists. In 1913 the CRC offered a short manual called the Rubber Handbook as an incentive to purchase one of their products. Since then the Rubber Handbook has evolved into the CRC's flagship book, the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, which is now printed in its 84th edition. The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is widely regarded as an important resource for research scientists.
[ The handbook contains 2, 616 pages and weighs in at about 10 pounds. As the CRC's web page says, "The most accurate, reliable, and current resource available on data needed by chemists, physicists, and engineers. ... By popular request, several tables omitted from recent editions are back, including Coefficients of Friction, and Miscibility of Organic Solvents. Ten other sections have been substantially revised, with some, such as the Table of the Isotopes and Thermal Conductivity of Liquids, significantly expanded. The Fundamental Physical Constants section has been updated with the latest CODATA/NIST values, and the Mathematical Tables appendix now features several new sections covering topics that include orthogonal polynomials, Clebsch-Gordan coefficients, and statistics." ] - Albert Einstein's Relativity: the Special and General Theory (1916)
Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He proposed the theory of relativity and also made major contributions to the development of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and cosmology. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect and "for his services to Theoretical Physics".
After his general theory of relativity was formulated, Einstein became world-famous, an unusual achievement for a scientist. In his later years, his fame exceeded that of any other scientist in history, and in popular culture, Einstein has become synonymous with someone of very high intelligence or the ultimate genius. His face is also one of the most recognizable the world-over. In 1999, Einstein was named "Person of the Century" by Time Magazine.
[ Relativity: the Special and General Theory is available on-line at the Gutenberg Project. ] - Erwin Schrödinger's Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem (1926)
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist famous for his contributions to quantum mechanics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1933.
In 1926, Schrödinger published in the Annalen der Physik the paper Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem (Quantisation as an Eigenvalue Problem) and what is now known as the Schrödinger equation. It describes the time-dependence of quantum mechanical systems. It is of central importance to the theory of quantum mechanics, playing a role analogous to Newton's second law in classical mechanics. - Werner Heisenberg's Quantum Theory and Measurement (1927)
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics.
In Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik, published in Zeitschrift für Physik, 1927, Heisenberg presents his "uncertainty principle", which states in general that an uncertainty relation arises between any two observable quantities defined by non-commuting operators.
Together with Bohr, he would go on to formulate the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. He received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1932 "for the creation of quantum mechanics". - Kurt Gödel's Incompletess Theorems (1931)
Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems were first published as Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme in Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik in 1931.
One can paraphrase the first theorem as saying that "we can never find an all encompassing axiomatic system which is able to prove all mathematical truths, but no falsehoods.
One can paraphrase the second theorem as saying that "If an axiomatic system can be proven to be consistent from within itself, then it is inconsistent.
[ This paper is the first of the Gödel, Church, Turing, and von Neumann quartet, which I rank highly because they are my favourite foundation documents of computing science, of which I am a practioner. ] - Alan Turing's On Computable Numbers (1936)
On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem was published in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society in 1936.
Turing reduced the Entscheidungsproblem to the halting problem for Turing machines, and his paper is generally considered to be more influential than Church's. The work of both authors was heavily influenced by Kurt Gödel's earlier work on his incompleteness theorem, especially by the method of assigning numbers to logical formulas in order to reduce logic to arithmetic. - Chuck Jones' Bugs Bunny (1938)
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films [...]. He directed many of the classic short cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, and the other Warners characters, including the memorable What's Opera, Doc? (1957) and Duck Amuck (1952).
Bugs Bunny is a fictional street-smart gray rabbit [...] and is one of the most recognizable characters, real or imaginary, in the world.
He is noted for his signature line of "Eh, what's up, doc?" and his feuds with Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Daffy Duck, and even Wile E. Coyote, who usually takes on the Road Runner. Almost invariably, Bugs comes out the winner in these conflicts, because that is in his nature.
This is especially obvious in films directed by Chuck Jones, who liked to pit "winners" against "losers". Worrying that audiences would lose sympathy for an aggressor who always won, Jones found the perfect way to make Bugs sympathetic in the films by having the antagonist repeatedly bully, cheat or threaten Bugs in some way. Thus offended, (usually three times) Bugs would often state "Of course, you realize this means war" (a line which Jones noted was taken from Groucho Marx) and the audience gives Bugs silent permission to inflict his havoc, having earned his right to retaliate and/or defend himself. - Alonzo Church's Introduction to Mathematical Logic (1944)
Alonzo Church was a mathematician and logician who was responsible for some of the foundations of theoretical computing science.
He is best known for the development of the lambda calculus in his famous 1936 paper showing the existence of an "undecidable problem" within it. This result preempted Alan Turing's famous work on the halting problem which also demonstrated the existence of a problem unsolvable by mechanical means. Supervising Turing's doctoral thesis, they then showed that the lambda calculus and the Turing machine used in Turing's halting problem were equivalent in capabilities. This resulted in the Church-Turing thesis.
[ Not only that, but I have it on good authority that Introduction to Mathematical Logic is considered to be the classic work of modern mathematics (to date), which is why it's on the list in this spot. And Church's lambda calculus is really cool, too. ] - Ludwig von Mises' Bureaucracy (1944)
After receiving his PhD, Mises set to work on The Theory of Money and Credit (1912), his first major work.
Once confronted with the extraordinary growth of the federal government in the United States, in 1944 he issued a warning against mixed economy statism in his powerful book Bureaucracy.
Mises applied principles from his previous books to show that government regulatory agencies, lacking a test of profit and loss, grow larger and more intrusive even while they confer no social or economic benefit. It was the first systematic economic analysis of the subject, and later spawned a new field in economics. - Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944)
Friedrich August von Hayek was an economist and social scientist of the Austrian School, noted for his defense of free-market capitalism against a perceived rising tide of socialist thought in the mid-20th century. He also made important contributions to the fields of jurisprudence and cognitive science.
In The Road to Serfdom and subsequent works, Hayek claimed that socialism had a strong probability of leading towards totalitarianism, because, in his view, central planning could not be restricted to the economic sector and would eventually affect social life as well. Hayek also contended that in centrally-planned economies an individual or a group of individuals must determine the allocation of resources, but that planners will never have enough information to carry out this allocation reliably. - John von Neumann's Stored Program Computing (1945)
Von Neumann's draft outlining the principles behind the stored-program computer garnered him the lion's share of the credit for formulating the new approach. The 23-page document depicted in this exhibit was typed and written out by Von Neumann in 1945, and was intended to demonstrate the potential of the EDVAC design. It took as its task a very basic function, sorting, rearranging and merging data. Perhaps it can be said that with this small program, Von Neumann rearranged the past, merging it with the future. [ From the American Philosophical Society's web page about their exhibit of the first computer program ever, which was written by von Neumann. ]
[ John played a crucial role in the development of the first machines that could change their own rules of operation; calculators in which the program's binary instructions were stored in the same memory as was stored binary data (which was memory that could be changed by the operations of the instructions itself). In 1947, while working on the design for its successor machine, EDVAC, von Neumann realized that ENIAC's lack of a central control unit could be overcome to obtain a rudimentary stored program computer. Modifications were undertaken that eventually led to an instruction set of 92 "orders". For the first time, a calculator could change its own instructions, and the computer was born.
John von Neumann said, "If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is." ] - Calude Shannon's A mathematical theory of communication. (1948)
Claude Elwood Shannon has been called "the father of information theory", and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory.
In his 1937 MIT master's thesis, A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits, Shannon proved that Boolean algebra and binary arithmetic could be used to simplify the arrangement of the electromechanical relays then used in telephone routing switches, then turned the concept upside down and also proved that it should be possible to use arrangements of relays to solve Boolean algebra problems. This concept, of utilizing the properties of electricity to do math, is the basic concept that underlies all modern electronic digital computers, and the thesis became the foundation of practical digital circuit design when it became widely known among the electrical engineering community during and after World War II.
In 1948 Shannon published A Mathematical Theory of Communication (Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27, pp. 379-423 and 623-656, July and October, 1948). This work focuses on the problem of how to reconstruct at a target point the information a sender has transmitted. In this fundamental work he used tools in randomized analysis and large deviations, which were in their nascent development stages at that time. Shannon developed information entropy as a measure for redundancy while essentially inventing information theory. - James Watson & Francis Crick's Molecular structure of Nucleic Acid (1953)
James D. Watson and Francis H. Crick published Molecular structure of Nucleic Acid in Nature magazine in 1953. The article starts off as follows.
"We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest.
[ I hereby nominate that paragraph for understatement of the century. ] - Vitruvius's Birth Certificate (November 13, 1955)
[ No, I'm not going to put a high-resolution image of my birth certificate on the web. Yes, it is one of the top documents of all time, from my perspective. Something to do with heralding the arrival of my DNA, no doubt. ] - Julia Child's The French Chef (1963)
Julia Child was a famous American gourmet cook, author, and television personality who introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programs. Her most famous works are the 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and the television series The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.
[ Note for the record that this entry is filed under philosophy, not cooking. Julia has said, "Red Meat and Gin!", "First, Start With Butter", "Just Add More Wine", "Just Add More Cream", &c. She believed that the best diet was to eat small portions of rich foods, slowly. Works for me. ] - Earth Rise (1968)
On December 22, 1968, as the Apollo 8 astronauts came from behind the Moon after their lunar orbit insertion burn, Lunar Module pilot William Anders recorded what is now commonly known as the "Earth Rise" document. In this image, the Earth is 240, 000 miles away from the astronauts.
This photograph was not on the survey schedule. Anders recorded it serendipitously, after Mission Commander Frank Borman looked out the window as they were coming out from behind the dark side of the moon and said, "Oh my god, look at that picture over there. Here's the Earth coming up!"
Some consider Earth Rise to be the most reproduced photograph ever.
[ Six months after that photograph was taken, I watched Apollo 11, from launch to landing to setting foot on the moon to splashdown, with my parents and sister, on a black and white television, in our living room. I consider landing on the moon and returning safely to be one of the top accomplishments of the species, but that's a topic for another list. ] - Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie's Unix (1969)
[ Unix to this day remains the best overall computer operating system architecture for software developers and for professional production applications. The C programming language written by Thompson in 1970, for Unix, remains the most common low-level language in use today. Considering the forces that have been acting on computing science since then, you realize how amazing that accomplishment is.
In 1974 I signed a release to be allowed access to Unix serial number 3, which Dr. Marsland brought back to the University of Alberta from his sabbatical at Bell Labs, on nine-track magnetic tape. Today, in the third millenium, my company uses Unix.
Vitruvius says, "Unix and C were the best thing to happen to software since John von Neumann." ] - Nathaniel Branden's Objectivist Lectures (1971)
[ I am nominally libertarian, which roughly means anti-authoritarian. However, I'm an ethical cynic (that doesn't mean I'm cynical, it's a term of art in philosopy that means something like Gödel's theorem applied to ethics), and so I can't be a libertarian ideologist. Let's say, for now, that I'm a pragmatic libertarian.
Although I consider myself an objectivist, I am not particularly a fan of the Randian school (although I did like her Objectivist Epistemology). Rather, it was primarily Branden's speeches (I heard a dozen or two on LPs in about 1972) that got me interested in the objectivist model of reality.
Somewhere in my basement I've got a transcript of those recordings, made by a friend's father in India, with a signed letter of permission from Branden.
Unfortunately I can't find any on-line reference to this work, so the above links take you to the Wikipedia entries on Branden and on Objectivism. Oh by the way, he was Canadian. Cool eh? ] - Cerf & Kahn's A protocol for packet network interconnection (1974)
The idea of open-architecture networking was first introduced by Kahn shortly after having arrived at DARPA in 1972. At the time, the program was called "Internetting". [...] Kahn decided to develop a new version of the protocol which could meet the needs of an open-architecture network environment. This protocol would eventually be called the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol.
Kahn began work on a communications-oriented set of operating system principles while at BBN and documented some of his early thoughts in an internal BBN memorandum entitled Communications Principles for Operating Systems. [...] In the spring of 1973, after starting the internetting effort, he asked Vint Cerf (then at Stanford) to work with him on the detailed design of the protocol. [...] Armed with Kahn's architectural approach to the communications side and with Cerf's NCP experience, they teamed up to spell out the details of what became TCP/IP.
[ Thus, Vinton G. Cerf and Robert E. Kahn, A protocol for packet network interconnection, IEEE Trans. Comm. Tech., vol. COM-22, V 5, pp. 627-641, May 1974, records the beginning of the Internet. ] - Jay & Lynn's Yes (Prime) Minister (1980)
Yes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister were British sitcoms transmitted by the BBC between 1980 and 1988, set in the private office of a government Minister. All 38 episodes were written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn.
Much of the humour of the show derives from the conflict between the British Cabinet ministers (who believe they are in charge) and the members of the British Civil Service who are really running the country. A typical episode will deal with Jim Hacker wanting to move on a pressing political issue only to find Sir Humphrey blocking and stalling his efforts in order to maintain the status quo. Most episodes end with Sir Humphrey having prevented Hacker from doing anything, but letting him think that he has scored a political victory. Occasionally Hacker has the upper hand.
Other characteristics include Sir Humphrey's complicated sentences, his cynical views on government and general toffiness, Hacker's bumbling and tendency to go into ludicrous Churchillian speeches when politically inspired, and Bernard's linguistic pedantry. Sir Humphrey often discusses matters with other Permanent Secretaries, who appear at least equally cynical and jaded, and the Cabinet Secretary (whom he will eventually succeed in Yes, Prime Minister) Sir Arnold Robinson, who is the archetype of cynicism, haughtiness and conspiratorial expertise.
Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister have been cited by political scientists for their accurate and sophisticated portrayal of these relationships. The shows were very popular in governmental circles and it was the favourite programme of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. - Benoît Mandelbrot's The Fractal Geometry of Nature (1982)
Benoît B. Mandelbrot is a Polish-born French mathematician and leading proponent of fractal geometry. He is Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Emeritus at Yale University and IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center.
Mandelbrot worked on problems and published papers in fields as diverse as information theory, economics and fluid dynamics. He became convinced that a common theme of self-similar structures ran through all of these real-world problems. In 1975 Mandelbrot coined the term fractal to describe these structures, and published his ideas in Les objets fractals, forme, hasard et dimension.
In 1979, while on secondment as Visiting Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, Mandelbrot began to study fractals called Julia sets that were invariant under certain transformations of the complex plane. Building on previous work by Julia and by Pierre Fatou, Mandelbrot used a computer to plot images of the Julia sets of the equation z² - c. While investigating how the topology of these Julia sets depended on the complex parameter c, he discovered the Mandelbrot set fractal that is now named after him.
In 1982 Mandelbrot published an expanded and updated version of his ideas in The Fractal Geometry of Nature. This hugely influential work brought fractals into the mainstream of both professional and popular mathematics. - Tim Berners-Lee &c's World-Wide Web (1992)
In 1980, while an independent contractor at CERN, Berners-Lee proposed a project based on the concept of hypertext, to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers. With help from Robert Cailliau he built a prototype system named Enquire.
After leaving CERN to work at John Poole's Image Computer Systems Ltd., he returned in 1984 as a fellow. He used similar ideas that he used in Enquire to create the World Wide Web, for which he designed and built the first browser (called WorldWideWeb) and the first web server simply called httpd.
The first website Berners-Lee built (and therefore the first web site) was at http://info.cern.ch/ and was first put online on August 6, 1991. It provided an explanation about what the World Wide Web was, how one could own a browser, how to set up a web server, and so on. It was also the world's first web directory, since Berners-Lee later maintained a list of other web sites apart from his own.
[ T.J. Berners-Lee, R. Cailliau, J-F Groff, B. Pollermann, CERN, World-Wide Web: An Information Infrastructure for High-Energy Phsyics, presented at "Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering for High Energy Physics" in La Londe, France, January 1992. ]
[ And that makes 50. ]
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