[SIGCIS-Members] The latest inventor of the computer
lidemol
elizabeth.demol at ugent.be
Fri Mar 24 02:59:42 PDT 2017
For those of you interested in the paper mentioned by Edgar, a draft
version is available from:
https://hal-univ-paris8.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01345592/document
(though some of our conclusions are in need of revision or, at least,
nuancing)
best wishes,
Liesbeth
On 2017-03-24 07:24, Edgar Daylight wrote:
> Turing did not invent the computer. But one could have an easier time
> trying to defend the claim that Turing's 1936 work was a prerequisite
> for Willem van der Poel to build the first Dutch "stored program"
> computers ..... as explained in my latest book "Turing Tales"; see:
> www.dijkstrascry.com/turingtales
> In retrospect, Turing himself might very well have thought like van der
> Poel (with Turing universality being a central concept in his
> engineering work); they certainly programmed real computers in a very
> similar manner. A similar remark can be made about Martin Davis in the
> 1950s, who did not build computers but did program them.
>
> Another source is our work in progress, presented at the first Siegen
> workshop in 2016:
> L. De Mol, M. Bullynck, E.G. Daylight. A Short History of Small
> Machines. (work in progress)
>
> best wishes,
> Edgar
>
>
>
>
> On Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:39 PM, Seamus Sweeney
> <seamussweeney1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> As often happens, dear old Ireland can claim an even earlier invention:
> - https://csiweb.ucd.ie/content/symbol-vec-newgrange
>
> Over 5000 years ago tomb builders in the Boyne Valley constructed,
> possibly, the first optical computer in the world using the main tomb at
> Newgrange. Every winter solstice the light at dawn on the horizon
> shines through a unique box-like structure over the main entrance, down
> the passage to the very back of the tomb; indicating very precisely the
> time of the the year. While the outer stones of the Newgrange tumulus
> are artistically decorated with spirals and losenges, the meaning of
> which is unknown, the reverse side of these kerb stones have less
> well-executed symbols (dot patterns, diamonds, spirals, losenges and so
> on) which are assumed to have some symbolic meaning. The aim of this
> project is to use the word2vec system to analyse the co-occurrence
> structure of these symbols with a view to saying something about the
> similarities between different stones and/or sites. Several current
> analyses have been carried out, based on percentages of coverage of
> certain symbols on given stones, but an extensive and complete analysis
> has yet to be carried out. Using an analogy to documents, each tomb can
> be treated as a document, each stone as a sentence and each symbol as a
> work. The aim of the system would be to detemine statistically what
> symbols tend to co-occur with other symbols at different locations.
>
> On 23 March 2017 at 21:34, Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh at gmail.com
> <mailto:thomas.haigh at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> That’s precisely why my CACM article had the tag line “Separating
> the origins of computer science and technology.” Computer science
> comes along later, and assembles its foundations long after actual
> electronic computers already exist. The mistake that computer
> scientists and philosophers make is in assuming that the development
> of actual computers must have been driven by the availability of
> abstract models. That reflects their general disdain for engineering
> and actual history. In reality, people built computers first and
> worried about how to legitimate a discipline around their study
> later.____
> __ __
> An article called “How Aristotle Created Computer Science” would be
> making an enormously different claim from one titled “How Aristotle
> Created the Computer.” However, any such article would need to be
> about the 1950s and 60s, that being when the various intellectual
> and institutional things that were integrated to form the
> foundations of computer science were actually assembled.____
> __ __
> Tom____
> __ __
> *From:*David C. Brock [mailto:dcb at dcbrock.net <mailto:dcb at dcbrock.net>]
> *Sent:* Thursday, March 23, 2017 4:21 PM
> *To:* Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh at gmail.com
> <mailto:thomas.haigh at gmail.com>>
> *Cc:* David Brock <dcb at dcbrock.net <mailto:dcb at dcbrock.net>>; Len
> Shustek <len at shustek.com <mailto:len at shustek.com>>;
> members at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members at lists.sigcis.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] The latest inventor of the computer____
> __ __
> But couldn’t one argue that computer science owes a huge debt to
> philosophy, particularly foundations of mathematics and formal
> logic? My impression is that debt is under-paid and not that widely
> appreciated.____
> __ __
>
> On Mar 23, 2017, at 4:48 PM, Thomas Haigh
> <thomas.haigh at gmail.com <mailto:thomas.haigh at gmail.com>> wrote:____
> __ __
> Better than the title, perhaps, but everything is relative.____
> ____
> To be fair, the article is doubling down on a version of
> computer history that is quite popular, particularly among
> non-historians. Given the reach of Davis’ book, not to mention
> Hofstadter, I’m not sure that all this is as unusual approach as
> the opening implies. My views on all this are on record in the
> CACM article “Actually, Turing Did Not Invent The
> Computer.” http://www. tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/
> CACMActuallyTuringDidNotInvent TheComputer.pdf
> <http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/CACMActuallyTuringDidNotInventTheComputer.pdf>____
> ____
> If you believe Copeland, Davis, and others who think that Turing
> invented the so-called "stored program" computer in 1936, then
> why not cut out the middle man? Going up the chain and handing
> the whole thing to Aristotle is only slightly more of a stretch.
> Dixon clearly does believe the Davis/Copeland version:____
> ____
> In contrast to Shannon’s paper, Turing’s paper is highly
> technical. Its primary historical significance lies not in its
> answer to the decision problem, but in the template for
> computer design it provided along the way….____
> ____
> Turing showed how a program could be stored inside a computer
> alongside the data upon which it operates. In today’s
> vocabulary, we’d say that he invented the “stored-program”
> architecture that underlies most modern computers. [skipping
> quote from Davis] This was the first rigorous demonstration that
> any computing logic that could be encoded in hardware could also
> be encoded in software. The architecture Turing described was
> later dubbed the “Von Neumann architecture” — but modern
> historians generally agree it came from Turing, as, apparently,
> did Von Neumann himself.____
> ____
> Asserting that "modern historians generally agree" that the von
> Neumann architecture came from Turing’s paper seems like a
> rather dubious claim to me. Particularly if you read Turing’s
> paper and look for a von Neumann architecture in it. At the
> Early Digital workshop in January I raised the question
> explicitly with a fairly good sampling of “modern historians”
> and nobody present supported the idea. ____
> ____
> Another exaggeration: “Turing joined a secret unit at Bletchley
> Park, northwest of London, where he helped design computers that
> were instrumental in breaking German codes.” Bombes weren’t
> computers, and Turing didn’t help to design Colossus (which
> personally I don’t think was a computer either, but that’s more
> controversial).____
> ____
> People in the comments section seem to like it, but in an
> unusually highbrow example of internet discourse are calling out
> for more attention to the anitkythera device, Chrysippus,
> Pierce, Polish bombe creators, Thomas Aquinas, etc. Nobody seems
> to be objecting to the Turing claim, though someone does take
> the opportunity to insult Ada Lovelace.____
> ____
> Best wishes,____
> ____
> Tom____
> ____
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Members [mailto:members-bounces at lists. sigcis.org
> <mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org>] On Behalf Of Len Shustek
> Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 3:11 PM
> To: members at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members at lists.sigcis.org>
> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] The latest inventor of the computer____
> ____
> We're fully engaged in the invention of email, but we haven't
> had any new inventors of the computer in a while. The Atlantic
> is helping with that: "How Aristotle Created the Computer".____
> https://www.theatlantic.com/ technology/archive/2017/03/
> aristotle-computer/518697/
> <https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/03/aristotle-computer/518697/>____
> The article is rather better than its title.____
> ____
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