[tavilach]

My grandfather is 86 years old, and he has never used a computer. He's a really smart guy and even knows, for example, about the founders of Google, but of course he has no idea what Google really is. He doesn't like to try new things, and I'm confident that he'd never use a computer if given one. In fact, I'd love it if he could use a computer to communicate with us, but he's a stubborn guy.

Nevertheless, he is fascinated by modern technology. When I was explaining to him how I'm able to take a video using my tiny camera, and upload that to my computer in seconds, he was really amazed. I'm sure he would be equally amazed at all the applications of computing that he doesn't know about (i.e. almost all of them), as well how the technology came to be and how it works.

I'd like to buy him a book that explains the history, workings, and applications of modern technology and computing. Of course, I don't want it to be too technical, because he doesn't know enough about modern science and technology. I also don't want it to be a simple tutorial on how to use a computer, because he doesn't have one and wouldn't be interested in something like that. A childish introduction would also be silly, because this is a very smart man we're dealing with, who still, for example, happens to be a whiz at chess.

Such a book may or may not exist, but I'd love to hear any ideas!

[tavilach]

Does such a book really not exist? That's too bad .

[goMac]

There used to be a book called "How the Mac Works." They have an edition pre-Copland, and they did another one around the release of OS X. Obviously, it's Mac specific, but you might want to take a look.

I own both editions if you want to take a look at anything.