I read every major CS paper of the last 100 years...

Fireship

Summary

This video explores a century of computer science by highlighting ten foundational research papers that transformed our world. It traces the evolution of computing from Alan Turing's theoretical machine and Claude Shannon's information theory to the massive deep learning breakthroughs of recent years, like the transformer architecture and GPT-3. The journey shows how core concepts like entropy, backpropagation, and distributed systems were eventually combined with scale to create the artificial intelligence boom we experience today.

Chapters

  1. 0:00The Foundations of Computing
  2. 3:13Claude Shannon and Information Theory
  3. 4:58Neural Networks and AI Winters
  4. 6:44Distributed Systems and Causality
  5. 10:01Backpropagation and Deep Learning

Topics covered

  • The birth of computing theory
  • Information theory and the bit

+6 more topics (full content when you follow the channel)

Transcript excerpt

The year was 1936. Alan Turing asked a simple question, "Can machines think?" Actually, no, that's not right. What he really asked was something way more boring, "Can every mathematical problem be solved by an algorithm?" Surprisingly, he proved the answer is no, but in the process, he accidentally invented the computer. Then 12 years later in 1948, another legend shows up named Claude Shannon, and he reduced all human communication down to ones and zeros, casually inventing the bit like it was no big deal. One thing led to another and now in 2026, we have 18-year-olds in hoodies typing import torch into Python files and cashing billion-dollar checks from venture capitalist boomers. But reaching this point has been underpinned by a century-long chain reaction of computer science papers written mostly by dead people much smarter than us. In today's video, we'll look at 10 of the most impo…