[SIGCIS-Members] The Communicators

[James Sumner]

In the UK: Douglas Hartree, and I'll add another recommendation for 
Vivian Bowden.

Hartree's definition of the electronic computer as an unprecedentedly 
fast but counterintuitively stupid problem-solving tool which could do 
nothing but follow instructions literally – which appears in his 
/Nature/ paper, inaugural address, and various media sources around 1946 
– may well have been the sole passage point for this characterisation 
into sources aimed at non-specialists in the UK. It was certainly picked 
up directly by Bowden, whose 1953 collection /Faster Than Thought/ has 
also been mentioned in a couple of replies. /FTT /was the first 
book-length treatment of computers written (in part!) for non-specialist 
readers in the UK, and was also, judging from Bowden's correspondence, 
in surprisingly high demand in the USA.

I remember Brian Randell once mentioning that the revival of Charles 
Babbage's name and significance was, on his assessment, begun by Leslie 
Comrie, who transmitted it to Hartree, who transmitted it to Bowden. I 
suspect the same may be true of the standard "fast calculating tool" 
characterisation of computing machines more generally. Opposing this, of 
course, was the concept of the computer as capable of learning and 
creativity, as seeded by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper and followed up 
by Jack Good and Donald Michie.

Hope this helps!

All best
James


On 17/03/2022 14:58, Evan Koblentz wrote:
>
> I’m interested in a new-to-me research angle: the people who changed 
> computing by writing about it.
>
> Lovelace comes to mind. So do Vannevar Bush and Edmund Berkeley.
>
>  1. Who else should I consider from prior to 1965? (I have the
>     microcomputer generation covered.)
>  2. Are there existing papers on this subject?
>
> NJIT logo <https://www.njit.edu/>
>
> 	
>
> *Evan A Koblentz*
> Staff Writer, Office of Strategic Communications
> Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing
> evan.a.koblentz at njit.edu <mailto:evan.a.koblentz at njit.edu> • 
> (973) 596-3065 <tel:9735963065>
> https://web.njit.edu/~evank
> <https://web.njit.edu/~evank%0b>@TechnicallyEvan 
> <https://twitter.com/technicallyevan>
>
>
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