he has the microphone. >> first of all let me say thank you to george dyson. pplause] , on, come on up. come on over here. >> take it share. i want to hear what it was like to join this project at age 17. >> have a seat. you and george have a little calmer station. there you go. >> george and i have had several conversations, and perhaps it would be interesting to know how we met. i have a son in philadelphia and back in fort collins, colorado, i met a woman whose father had been woodrow wilson's taylor when woodrow wilson was the president of princeton university. imagine how long ago that was. and she was going back to princeton for a high school reunion. we decided we would meet at princeton for lunch, but since i got there early, i went out to the institute and the receptionist, when i told her my little bit of history, said why don't you go over to the library. you might be interested in what is over there. and what was over there was a display of the institute's electronic computers 50 years ago. in the case i found onionskin copies of letters with my ini

ladies and gentlemen, please, join me in welcoming george dyson. [applause] >> thank you very much. >> welcome. >> thank you. >> so glad to have you here, george. >> great to be here. fantastic exhibits. they're just incomprehensibly good. >> well, thank you. thank you very much. we're delighted you're here, and you're among friends. these are your people, george. [laughter] so we're going to have some fun tonight. let's talk about, first, the process of writing the book. now, you have an intensely personal connection to princeton and the advanced, the institute of advanced study because of your father, freeman dyson. >> and my mother. >> and your mother. >> my mother was there first. >> absolutely. so talk a little bit about that, what it was like to grow up and be among people at isa? >> well, i've got to be careful what i say, but for a child, for a young boy it was not that interesting a place because it was populated mainly by theoreticians who, you know, would work on pencil and paper all day and go off in the woods and talk about physics, and

ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming george dyson. lause] [applause] [applause] thank you very much. >> it's great to have you here. >> thank you. >> welcome. so glad to have you here, george. >> this is a fantastic exhibit. >> thank you very much. we are delighted you are here. you are among friends. these are your people, george. we are going to have some fun tonight. let's talk about the practice of writing the book. you have an intensely personal connection to princeton and the advanced best the institute of advanced study, because your father, freeman dyson, and your mother -- talk a little bit about that, what it was like to go up and be among people at turn four. >> i have to be careful what i say, but for a child -- a young boy, it was not that interesting. it would work on pencil and people all day and go out into the woods and talk about physics. the most exciting thing was the chalkboard. they still use chalkboards at the time. but there was this out building up in the back where julian bigelow was building this machine. tha

writing those letters, but the librarian at the institute said i think you might like to meet george dyson because he is writing a book about the electronic computer project. and left my telephone number and the next day george telephoned and i came back to princeton and we have had a friendship -- and i got to -- if that is any interest to you. when i was 16 years old i graduated from high school in philadelphia, william penn high school for girls and my parents, my father who was a greek immigrants made it clear to me i could not expect to go to college. nice greek girls found husband's and when to work and that was the end of it. but a counselor at the high school, i was at the top of my class -- she said we have gotten a request for a secretary at the university of pennsylvania and she sent me out there and i met herman bold steen -- goldstein in his uniform and his wife, adele goldstein, and for some reason they hired this night eve girl who didn't even know algebra. i was thrown into this magic world that i think of as a miracle. after they --eniac was introduced i was invited to go

at 9:00, george dyson talks about the realization of alan turing's theoretical universal machine in the 1940s and '50s. at 10:30, john girtner traces some of the 20th century's most important inventions. book tv in primetime all week on c-span2. >> between 1971 and 1973, president richard nixon secretly recorded nearly 4,000 hours of phone calls and meetings. >> always agree on the little things and then you hold on the big one. hell, i've done this so often in conversations with people, i'll say we'll concede that and make them feel good, but then don't give them the big one. >> every month, hear more on the tapes including discussions are future presidents, key white house advisers, and intelligence agency heads. saturdays at 6:00 p.m. eastern. this week, hear conversations with gerald ford, ronald reagan, and george h.w. bush. in washington, d.c., listen at 90.1 f.m. on, x.m. channel 119, and at vspanradio.org. >> i have seemed to have earned a certain place where people will listen to me, and i've always cared about the country. and the greatest generation writing that book gave me

ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming george dyson. lause] [applause] [applause] thank you very much. >> it's great to have you here. >> thank you. >> welcome. so glad to have you here, george. >> this is a fantastic exhibit. >> thank you very much. we are delighted you are here. you are among friends. these are your people, george. we are going to have some fun tonight. let's talk about the practice of writing the book. you have an intensely personal connection to princeton and the advanced best the institute of advanced study, because your father, freeman dyson, and your mother -- talk a little bit about that, what it was like to go up and be among people at turn four. >> i have to be careful what i say, but for a child -- a young boy, it was not that interesting. it would work on pencil and people all day and go out into the woods and talk about physics. the most exciting thing was the chalkboard. they still use chalkboards at the time. but there was this out building up in the back where julian bigelow was building this machine. tha

>> holman: hari sreenivasan talks to author george dyson about the dawn of the computer age and how engineers developing hydren bomb needed a faster machine to run all the calculations. that interview is on our science page. plus, patchwork nation updates the economic picture in hopkinsville, kentucky, a military bastion community. thousands of service personnel from nearby fort campbell are back from overseas deployments and spending money in local businesses. find that on our homepage. and attention farmers, as part of our ongoing series on coping with climate change, we'd like to hear if your crops are being affected. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. jeff? >> brown: and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the afghanistan conflict. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are eight more. >> brown: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with david brooks and ruth marcus among ot

after that, george dyson talks about the radical universal machine in the 1940s and 50s, in turning the cathedral. the origins of the digital universe at 9:00 p.m. eastern. and at 10:30 p.m., and author traces some of the 20th century's most important inventions to one american company. the idea factory. booktv in prime time all week on c-span 2. in a few momentsfrom our special "book tv" programming in primetime continues with author john shaw on the career of richard lugar of indiana. the life of senator l. simpson coming up in an hour. after that from a look behind the scenes of the 112th congress and the 2012 midterm elections. later, another chance to hear the comments of arlen specter in his career. tuesday on "washington journal", look at al qaeda and afghanistan and pakistan. one year after the death of osama bin laden. then we will hear from an environment and energy reporter. she will discuss the impact of energy and environmental policies on the economy. later, an examination of an inspector general report on the veterans affairs department on the accessibility of mental heal

. >> george dyson talks about the team, led by john von neumann at princeton, who built the first computercusses the impact of that work on other fields of science. this is about an hour and 20 minutes. >> finally before you start i do have one very, very special introduction tonight. i'd like to recognize on behalf of of george, accra vote a manual ladies, who is here in the front row, he was hired as a secretary at the age of 16 to work for herman goldstein when he was working with others at the moore school. and when herman goldstein moved from that project to ias to work directly with john von neumann and a cripple team there, he went with him and had a very distinguished career doing far, far more than simply being a secretary to herman goldstein. she was there at the creation and she's traveled from alice byrd tonight to be a for this program. would you please stand up? i thought that. >> you are so tiny, i saw people in the back sort of straining to see. we're delighted to hear and we may even take a few questions for the q&a session to give like to ask quet