[SIGCIS-Members] Another question - "Giant Brains"

Sat Jan 31 14:21:37 PST 2009

So much good dialogue has taken place today on this topic that I think we
should ask Evan to consolidate all of this into a short article that goes
into one of the back sections of the Annals or into an article in some
media journal.  If that works, there are a bunch of other things we could
flush out from time to time using this social networking/wisdom of crowds
approach.  We might even expand Evan's assignment by discussing automation
next weekend and then the following weekend cybernetics.

Jim (James) W. Cortada
IBM Institute for Business Value
3001 West Beltline Highway
Madison, WI 53713 USA
jwcorta at us.ibm.com
608-270-4462

  From:       Thomas Haigh <thaigh at computer.org>                                                               

  To:         members at sigcis.org                                                                               

  Date:       01/31/09 02:50 PM                                                                                

  Subject:    Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Another question - "Giant Brains"                                           

The title has great retro kitsch value, but I believe that "Giant Brains"
popularized a more important phrase. Berkeley defined the computer as "a
machine that handles information, transfers information from one part of
the machine to another and has a flexible control over the sequence of its
operation." This makes it special because transfers information
automatically, doesn't need minute to minute instructions -this makes "a
deep break with the past" even though "machines that handle information
have existed for more than 200 years." So he situates the as one in a long
lineof information handling machines going back to languages as "systems
for handling information", nerve cells, cave paintings, books, etc as
"physical equipment for handling information." That's the context in which
it makes sense to call a computer a giant brain, not because both think but
because both handle information.

While Shannon's information theory had obvious relevance for people
building digital computers, this is the earliest (1949) expansive framing
I'm aware of for the computer as a universal information processing
machine. I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows of an earlier one, but
it's surely the earliest one to reach a mass general audience.

Tom

2009/1/31 Allan Olley <allan.olley at utoronto.ca>
  Hey,
         Just did a quick check on JSTOR on the Science Service's The
  Science News-letter (what I assume Bernadette Longo refered to). The term
  "mechanical brain" is used about three times in the 1930s for some kind
  of calculator or control system. First instance in 1930 for a
  planetarium's control system (The Science News-Letter, Vol.
  17, No. 475 (May 17, 1930), pp. 312-313) and then in 1932 to describe
  Bush's Differential Analyzer (The Science News-Letter, Vol. 22, No. 606
  (Nov. 19, 1932), p. 320), which is also called a mathematical brain. The
  phrase "electronic 'brain'" is used to refer to a computing gunsight in
  1944 (The Science News-Letter, Vol. 46, No. 21 (Nov. 18, 1944), p. 326)
  Note that for example the press release by Harvard in 1944 for the
  IBM ASCC/Harvard Mark I refers to it as a "super-brain." (p. 124, Cohen,
  _Howard Aiken: Portrait of a computer pioneer_) So I think it is safe to
  say that the use of the word/analogy of brain to describe a computer was
  popular before Berkeley.
         The exact phrase "giant brain" is apparently not used anywhere in
  JSTOR's database (which is a number of scientific and other journals)
  before 1950 to describe machines...
         I did a quick check of the NY Times and found an article from 1947
  with the following title "NEW GIANT 'BRAIN' DOES WIZARD WORK; Bureau of
  Standards Says It Can Solve Vast Mathematical Problems in a Few Minutes"
  August 25, 1947, Monday Page 19, 602 words. About the Bureau of Standards
  plans for machines,"giant "electronic brains"" refered to, so the title
  may be an abreviation of that. It is based off a U.P. newswire. However
  this is the only pre-1949 reference, so it hardly suggests it is a
  popular
  description.
         Refering to early computers as giant brains is a natural way to
  describe them given their size and previous practice and so the phrase
  was probably coined more than once (like many computer algorithms that
  have been invented multiple times). I suspect if you did a search of all
  searchable newspapers and other available sources you would find a few
  more instances of the phrase "giant brain" however it does seem to me
  like Berkeley popularized the description.
  --
  Yours Truly,
  Allan Olley

  http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/

  On Sat, 31 Jan 2009, Bernadette Longo wrote:

  > Hi all -- The term "giant brains" had also been used numerous times by
  > the Science Service Newsletter editor during the 1930s in terms of
  > earlier mechanical calculators. Ditto to Jim's comments...Bernadette
  > Longo
  >
  > James Cortada wrote:
  >>
  >> He popularized the term, although it is not clear to me that he was
  the
  >> first to utter it. The concept had been floating around since at least
  >> the mid-1930s in the form of mechanically augmenting thinking. based
  on
  >> what I read in the 1930s and 1940s, I would give him--or his book
  >> editor--credit for the phrase. This is similar to the problem we still
  >> have with the word automation. It was in use at Ford Motors in the
  late
  >> 1940s but nobody knew about it or used the phrase until John Diebold
  >> did when he used it as the title for a best selling book published in
  >> the early 1950s. He told me that he had gotten the word from Ford and
  >> his editor encouraged him to use in the title of the book. The only
  >> really clever book title he ever came up with for his 7+ books. His
  >> experience is what taught me to spend a lot of time thinking about the
  >> title of any book you publish, fighting and dialoguing with editors,
  >> marketing people, and others until you get it right.
  >>
  >> Jim (James) W. Cortada
  >> IBM Institute for Business Value
  >> 3001 West Beltline Highway
  >> Madison, WI 53713 USA
  >> jwcorta at us.ibm.com
  >> 608-270-4462
  >>
  >> Inactive hide details for "Evan Koblentz" ---01/31/2009 04:20:10
  >> AM---Was the term "Giant Brains" already popular when Edmund B"Evan
  >> Koblentz" ---01/31/2009 04:20:10 AM---Was the term "Giant Brains"
  >> already popular when Edmund Berkeley used it in his 1949 book title,
  or
  >> should he get credit for po
  >>
  >>
  >> From:        "Evan Koblentz" <evan at snarc.net>
  >>
  >> To:  <members at sigcis.org>
  >>
  >> Date:        01/31/09 04:20 AM
  >>
  >> Subject:     [SIGCIS-Members] Another question - "Giant Brains"
  >>
  >>
  >>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >> Was the term "Giant Brains" already popular when Edmund Berkeley used
  >> it in his 1949 book title, or should he get credit for popularizing
  it?
  >> I'm mentioning the term in a footnote and want to be sure credit goes
  >> to the right source._______________________________________________
  >> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion
  >> list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at
  >> http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your
  >> subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
  >>
  >>
  >>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  >>
  >> _______________________________________________
  >> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion
  >> list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at
  >> http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your
  >> subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
  >
  >
  _______________________________________________
  This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list
  of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at
  http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription
  options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
and you can change your subscription options at
http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20090131/ccec2c08/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: graycol.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 105 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20090131/ccec2c08/attachment-0002.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ecblank.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 45 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20090131/ccec2c08/attachment-0003.gif>