This volume gathers lectures by 8 distinguished pioneers of automata theory, including two Turing Award winners. In each contribution, the early developments of automata theory are reminisced about and future directions are suggested. Although some of the contributions go into rather intriguing technical details, most of the book is accessible to a wide audience interested in the progress of the age of computers.The book is a must for professionals in theoretical computer science and related areas of mathematics. For students in these areas it provides an exceptionally deep view at the beginning of the new millennium.Contents:Hazard Algebras Extended Abstract) J Brzozowski & Z Ésik)Undecidability and Incompleteness Results in Automata Theory J Hartmanis)Automata Theory: Its Past and Future J Hopcroft)Forty Years of Formal Power Series in Automata Theory W Kuich)Playing Infinite Games in Finite Time R McNaughton)Gene Assembly in Ciliates: Computing by Folding and Recombination G Rozenberg)Compositions over a Finite Domain: From Completeness to Synchronizable Automata A Salomaa)Readership: Computer scientists, mathematicians, theoretical biologists, and educated laymen.