The Armchair Universe
an exploration of computer worlds
by A.K. Dewdney · first published 1987
82% recommend18% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Playful, hands-on tour of computing ideas such as cellular automata, recursion and simulations, written to inspire experiments. It has sparked interest in programming, especially among teenagers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"First collection of A.K. Dewdney's popular "Computer recreations" columns, drawn from Scientific american magazine between 1984 and 1987"--Back cover.
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…Missiles and Men in Space - Willy Ley ( side note: I rescued this book from a friend who was using it for target practice with an airgun!) 2) Chaos - James Gleick (I have to mention this one too) The Armchair Universe : An exploration of Computer Worlds - A. K. Dewdney
on “Ask HN: Which two books were the most influential on you?” ↗'The New Turing Omnibus', along with 'the magic machine' and 'the armchair universe' by AK DEWDNEY really appealed to the young (Science fiction Reading) me. The current (older) me just had their mind blown by 'Self'- but there is no book.
on “Six works of Computer Science-Fiction” ↗…Sadly neither book is suitable for general 11 year olds, but a modern version certainly could be. And A.K. Dewdney obviously has a bunch of books which could be used to inspire young programmers. The Armchair Universe, or The Magic Machine and similar launched many programmers, with "Core War", "Wator", "Bugs", etc
on “Python Exercises for Kids” ↗A)The Annotated Turing - Petzold B)Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds -- A.K. Dewdney The latter had many great ideas which inspired me to do interesting experiments on computers with minimal programming experience, it had a great chapter…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books?” ↗…Clifford Pickover (anything in this would be a good ShowHN, especially if you put it on a website with interactive sliders) (it's available as a download somewhere) Any of the A K Dewdney books eg The Armchair Universe or The Magic Machine.
on “Ask HN: What is the best way to spend my time as a 17-year-old who can code?” ↗dewdney is a genious, loved reading "The Armchair Universe", " The New Turing Omnibus" while i was in high school, i still go back to re-read, to see his unique fun way of exposition on CS theory
on “Core War” ↗…clocks are very cool! Seeing the Game of Life display stirred a memory in me of finding this book in the public library at a very influential age and obsessing over it (I checked it out multiple times): Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds (A. K. Dewdney, 1987) https://archive.org/details/armchairuniverse0000dewd_x2e7/pa... I remember being fascinated by Conway's Game of Life (and implementing it a few…
on “It's Okay to Make Something Nobody Wants” ↗Stand out books for me that I've read this year: * The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Short, but a great read) * The Incandescent by Emily Tesh * The Armchair Universe by A.K.Dewdney (First read this one many years ago, but I've been reading it again) * Final Orbit by Chris Hadfield (third book in a series, so you'd want to start at the begining with The Apollo Murders)
on “Ask HN: What were the best books you read in 2025?” ↗Great recommendation! His book The Armchair Universe is pretty much what made me want to be a programmer. I enjoy books that keep the fun in programming.
on “Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?” ↗…around with a toroidal topology.) Re-reading his stuff now is fun: I find I understand it a lot better than college-age me did back in the 1980's. Plenty of his work can be found on archive.org [1] "Armchair Universe" [2] is a nice collection of a number of his "Computer Recreations" columns — I think "The Tinkertoy Computer" [3] as well. As someone mentioned, his "The Planiverse" [4] was an extension to Abbott's…
on “A. K. Dewdney has died” ↗This reminds me of programming something from A. K. Dewdney's Armchair Universe on my Amiga in the late '80s. I think it originally appeared in Scientific American. It started off with bugs that just sort of juggled, but the ones that survived eventually glided around eating things.
on “Show HN: Richard Dawkins’ Biomorphs Implemented in JavaScript” ↗Spaghetti Sorting is just one of the Analog Gadgets called out in Dewdney's "The Armchair Universe" (originally in his Computer Recreations column in "Scientific American"). There are many other cool ones (beginning on page 28): https://archive.org/details/armchairuniverse0000dewd_x2e7/
on “Windows 10 wallpaper was physically built and photographed (2015)” ↗He also was a worthy successor to Martin Gardner in his Scientific American columns, and like Gardner, collected those columns into a series of books, The Tinkertoy Computer, The Magic Machine, and The Armchair Universe. What made his columns a bit different from Gardner's is that writing in the 1980s and 1990s, he often presented the puzzles and what not as ideas for readers to program on their home computers.
on “A. K. Dewdney has died” ↗