Computers are everywhere, and they are not just the familiar desktop computers, laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Most other computers are invisible to us – they control, for example, household appliances, cars, medical devices, transportation systems, energy grids, or even weapon systems. The legendary computer scientist Brian Kernighan was instrumental in the creation of the C language and the UNIX system, which today controls a significant portion of computers around the world. In this book, he summarizes everything important about how computers are constructed, how they function, what programming is, how the internet works, encryption and cryptocurrencies, and how all of this affects our security, privacy, property, and other important aspects of our lives in a condensed and understandable form. He also discusses the basics of mathematical informatics and its problems and perspectives. "It is the most comprehensible and simplest explanation of the world we are all now dependent on," said Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Novell, Google, and Alphabet, about Kernighan's book.
