This topic transcends machines as we know them including binary and Turing and Neumann and all that Jazz. These are things philosophers 2000 years ago could and

This topic transcends machines as we know them including binary and Turing and Neumann and all that Jazz. These are things philosophers 2000 years ago could and might actually discussed and though about. Dividing a piece of land into states, then counties then cities, etc. is an example of a tree. These "foundations" are mostly useful with computers as we know them, but they don't have to. People might discover new species of computers that do things very differently, but I think will still use these foundations. I also agree with you that something like gates and binary would be a great introduction to computers. This book doesn't seem like an intro to CS, but for somebody who has already programmed or somebody coming from a mathy background.