Alaska to Algorithms

About the Book

“Computers are the result of much work done by many people in many places. More than a half century ago, I was privileged, with remarkable collaborators, to be a thread in this fabric of innovation. I remember my excitement and sense of being present at the creation of something that we knew, even then, would rock the foundations of our world.”

Irving Reed’s creations are embedded in every computer, CD and DVD on the planet. In this autobiography Dr. Reed tells the story of his journey from his childhood in a log cabin on the Alaska frontier to manhood at Caltech, Northrop Aviation, MIT Lincoln Labs, the RAND Corporation, and USC’s Signal and Image Processing Institute, where he helped invent the digital tools and techniques that have shaped the world of the 21st century. His account brings to life the tumultuous birth and infancy of the machine that changed everything, and the extraordinary men and women who brought it into being.