Turing's Cathedral

How did computers take over the world? This is the story behind how the PC, ipod, smartphone and almost every aspect of modern life came into being.

In 1945 a small group of brilliant engineers and mathematicians gathered at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, determined to build a computer that would make Alan Turing's theory of a 'universal machine' reality. Led by the polymath émigré John von Neumann, they created the numerical framework that underpins almost all modern computing - and ensured that the world would never be the same again.