Includes bibliographical references (pages 95-102), Author's Bibliography (103) and index (105-107)

The design of distributed systems where computing devices (computers, smartphones, sensors) interact with one another is one of the most challenging problems in computer science. This book is a gentle introduction to some of the most fundamental issues and classical results of computer science underlying the design of algorithms for distributed systems.

While humans can see and hear each other, computing devices usually communicate by sending messages or reading from and writing to shared memory locations. As a result, it is far more difficult to synchronize interactions between computers than between humans. Based on this observation, fundamental principles that relate to interactions between computing devices that involve concurrency and synchronization are explained throughout the book.

Each chapter deals with a specific topic in terms of a story. It compares the issues that arise when dealing with groups of computing devices to those that arise when a group of people has to share their resources and work as a team to solve various problems. This is an excellent introduction to the feel and nature of this exciting and interesting field.
In this book, I have tried to gently introduce the general reader to some of the most fundamental issues and classical results of computer science underlying the design of algorithms for distributed systems, so that the reader can get a feel of the nature of this exciting and fascinating field called distributed computing. The book will appeal to the educated layperson and requires no computer-related background. I strongly suspect that also most computer-knowledgeable readers will be able to learn something new.