[SIGCIS-Members] My column on Turing and the Invention of the Computer

[Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN]

"Babbage as the first inventor of a computer that was never built"
Thanks for this remarkable definition !

To the list established by Len Shustek, and as we are talking about heroic figures, I would add Sir Winston Churchill. In ch. 9 of his memoirs, "My Early Life: 1874-1904" ("Education at Bangalore"), he took a realistic stand regarding the philosophy of knowledge, and for his demonstration fancied an imaginary, solar-powered "automatic calculating machine". Churchill published this in 1930, six years before Turing's seminal paper. We may wonder whether the young Cambridge mathematician read the memoirs of the old politician...

Best wishes,
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn

----- Mail original -----
De: "Len Shustek" <lshustek at computerhistory.org>
À: members at sigcis.org
Envoyé: Samedi 18 Janvier 2014 02:31:59
Objet: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] My column on Turing and the Invention of the Computer

At 12:47 PM 1/17/2014, Thomas Haigh wrote:
> > ...You may be interested in my newly published Communications of 
> the ACM Column "Actually, Turing Did Not Invent the Computer."
> > ... I think also that the public really has room in its 
> collective memory for just one famous person per technology, 
> usually its inventor. ...



There is indeed a public craving for lone heroic inventors. As an 
amateur historian I enjoy giving a talk whose title will make the 
professional historians here cringe: "Who Invented The Computer, and 
Why Don't You Know?". (The audience is often senior citizens. This is 
sometimes called the "rubber chicken circuit"; see wiki/Rubber_chicken.)

You will be relieved to know that I don't answer the question. I talk 
about Babbage, Zuse, Turing, Atanasoff/Berry, Aiken, Eckert/Mauchly, 
William/Kilburn, Von Neumann, and Wilkes. All this in 50 minutes! I 
do confess to the audience that if I were subjected to torture and 
required to answer the question, I would unapologetically name 
Babbage as the first inventor of a computer that was never built.

An excellent article, Tom, and a fun read.

-- Len

Dr. Leonard Shustek
Chairman, Computer History Museum
www.computerhistory.org



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