The oldest citation I've put in a computing related essay was to John Locke (1632-1704) but that's a bit of a cheat - I was referring to the notion of 'tabula rasa' in neural network learning.

The oldest computing/programming related books that I keep to hand and refer to occasionally are:

(although my copies of both are 90's reprints). Wiener in particular has some interesting discussion of the nature of feedback.

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"If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing."
John Brunner, "The Shockwave Rider".

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In reply to Re: YAC (Yet Another Challenge): Oldest Useful Computer Text by g0n
in thread YAC (Yet Another Challenge): Oldest Useful Computer Text by hsmyers

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