from Weaving to Artificial Intelligence: A Fun History of Computing, Punched Cards Silicon Brains

How did we go from wooden looms reading punched cards to machines that write poetry, code software, and debate philosophy?Forget the sterile, boring history of computing. The real journey was an eccentric, coffee-fueled comedy of errors, late-night solder burns, and cosmic accidents, led by brilliant oddballs who refused to do things the sensible way.In From Weaving to Artificial Intelligence, software engineer and author Maurício da Silva Maia takes you on a witty, fast-paced, and surprisingly human adventure across three centuries of digital evolution.Inside this richly illustrated volume, you'll discover: - The Victorian Dreamers: How Joseph Marie Jacquard's 1804 automated silk loom inspired Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace to invent software before electricity even existed.- The Accidental Geniuses: Why Grace Hopper found a literal moth trapped in an electromechanical relay-and how the term "debugging" entered folklore.- The Codebreakers & The Shadow War: How Alan Turing and the Bletchley Park cryptographic teams cracked Enigma and built Colossus in total secrecy.- The Silicon Rebels: How the "Traitorous Eight" broke away to birth Silicon Valley, and how Steve Wozniak and the Homebrew Computer Club dragged mainframes into suburban living rooms.- The Cold Winters and the AI Dawn: From perceptrons and the brutal "AI Winters" to GPUs, deep neural networks, and the sudden emergence of Large Language Models.Why readers love this book: - Over 70 Historical Photographs & Diagrams: See the original machines, patent schematics, and museum artifacts that changed the world.- Zero Tech Jargon: Core computer science concepts-binary arithmetic, transistor gates, microcode, and attention mechanisms-explained through sharp, intuitive metaphors anyone can enjoy.- Historically Rigorous: Fact-checked against original research, historical records, and patent filings, separating genuine breakthrough moments from popular internet myths.Whether you are a seasoned programmer looking for the forgotten roots of your craft, a student wondering how your smartphone came to be, or simply a curious reader who loves a great story, this book is your backstage pass to the digital age.Flip the switch. The revolution begins on page one.