[SIGCIS-Members] Analogue vs. Digital

[Paul Edwards]

James Small's dissertation did finally get published as a book:

The Analogue Alternative: The Electronic Analogue Computer in Britain and the USA, 1930–1975 (Routledge, 2001).

It's a terrific book and the only thing of its kind about computers (stops in 1975, as the title mentions, though). Unfortunately it is insanely expensive - well over $100, and not many used copies floating around.

A couple of chapters were published as stand-alones in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.

Other resources:

Mark Bowles, "U.S. Technological Enthusiasm and British Technological Skepticism in the Age of the Analog Brain"  (IEEE Annals)

Lang, "Analog was not a Computer Trademark! Why Would Anyone Write About Analog Computers In Year 2000?," Sound and Vibration (August 2000, attached to this email if the attachment survives the filter)

Paul
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On May 19, 2010, at 4:46 AM, Aristotle Tympas wrote:

> 
> Hi Pierre,
> 
> A welcomed addition to the history of the analog-digital relationship is
> that by Charles Care, who defended his dissertation at the University of
> Warwick in 2008. Care integrates this history into the history of
> modeling. You may also want to check relevant articles in Care's webpage
> at the University of Warwick.
> 
> David Mindell's 'Between Human and Machine' is, in my opinion, a must for
> those who want to study this relationship. But it is focused on an earlier
> period than the one that your student is interested in and it is more
> focused on on-line computing (computing as integrated into
> control-regulation). The dissertation by James Small (part of which made
> it to articles in the 'Annals of the History of Computing' and 'History
> and Technology', one in each) is more relevant in regards to period. For a
> suggestive study on the social meaning of analog technology from a context
> other than computers, I would recommend the book 'Analog Days: the
> invention and impact of the moon synthesizer' (by Trevor Pinch and Frank
> Trocco, 2002).
> 
> A wonderful but extremely demanding theoretically book on the
> analog-digital relationship from the early 1970s (1972) was written by
> Antony Wilden (System and Structure: Essays on Communication). I thought
> of it upon reading your email because it follows this relationship in
> contexts of  some relevance to what we now call neurobiology.
> 
> Because of your student's chronological focus, I would also suggest
> looking at the understudied history of hybrid analog-digital computer
> structures. For my own try at briefly introducing this history in the
> context of an encyclopedic entry, see Aristotle Tympas, ‘Computers:
> Hybrid’, in Encyclopedia of 20th –Century Technology, Colin Hempstead
> (editor), Routledge, London, Great Britain, 2005, 202-204. Also, for a
> survey of some preceding works on the history of analog computing, you may
> see the references in Aristotle Tympas, ‘Computers: Analog’, in
> Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Technology, Colin Hempstead (editor),
> Routledge, London, Great Britain, 2005, 195-199.
> 
> 
> I hope this helps,
> 
> Telly
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> One of our students is studying the early use of electronic computers
>> in neurophysiology, and has hit upon a 1967 controversy between
>> Experimental/ Analogue and Digital approaches, when DEC LINCs were
>> installed. What reading would you recommend on this topic ?
>> (I remember James Small addressed this controversy in his
>> dissertation, some 20 years ago - and so did, more recently, Paul
>> Edwards in "The Closed World")
>> 
>> Thanks !
>> Pierre Mounier-Kuhn
>> 
>> CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne
>> 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> -- 
> ??????????? ?????? / Aristotle Tympas
> http://www.phs.uoa.gr/hst/Faculty/Tympas.html
> 
> _______________________________________________
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Paul N. Edwards, Assoc. Professor of Information
A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming (MIT Press 2010)

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