In this insightful collection of essays, Maurice Wilkes shares his unique perspective on the development of computers and the current state of the art. These enlightening essays discuss the foundational ideas behind modern computing and provide a solid grounding for the appreciation of emerging computer technologies. Wilkes, one of the founders of computing, has provided enormous contributions to the development of computers, including the design and construction of the EDSAC computer and early development of programming for a stored program computer. He was responsible for the concept of microprogramming. Wilkes also wrote the first paper to appear on cache memories and was an early worker in the field of wide bandwidth local area networks. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology. These essays will be of interest to everyone involved with computers and how they arrived at their present state. Wilkes presents his perspectives with keen historical sensibility and engineering practicality. Readers are invited to consider these observations and form their own perspectives on the present state of the computer art.