cover of episode I Ching and Computer Science

I Ching and Computer Science

2021/6/3
logo of podcast The Master of Demon Gorge: A Chinese History Podcast

The Master of Demon Gorge: A Chinese History Podcast

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Shownotes Transcript

Did a 3,000-year-old Chinese book of divination anticipate modern computer science? When a Jesuit missionary brought him a copy of the I Ching, or more properly Yi Jing, "The Book of Changes," the German mathematician Leibniz was deeply amazed. Some of his own work seemed already represented in its mysterious pages. And Leibniz was an era-defining genius in his own right. It would be nearly another three centuries before we were able to fully implement Leibniz's work, in these little machines that we now call "computers."

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