[SIGCIS-Members] Play about Ada and Babbage

[Brian E Carpenter]

Paul,

> One question I have for the SIG: Babbage obviously knew of Leibniz's work, but was he familiar with Leibniz's writing on what we now call binary 
arithmetic? If so, what did  Babbage think of it?

I can't answer that, but I did look at writings by Turing (1945-6), Booth 
& Booth (1953) and Bowden (1953). They all made it clear that using binary was the obvious practical choice for electronic computation, and didn't 
really deem it worthy of discussion. Von Neumann (1945) gave a very florid explanation of the same practical choice. None of them bothered to mention Leibniz.

Clearly it was *not* a practical choice for Babbage, because... cog wheels. I don't know what the optimum engineering choice is for a cog wheel based device, but it clearly isn't base 2.

Regards
    Brian Carpenter

On 21-Mar-22 11:07, Ceruzzi, Paul wrote:
> I got a chance to see the play this weekend. (The run ends next week.) I really enjoyed it. I am not a theater critic, so I will leave it at that. It has some artistic license, of course, but none of the howlers that ruined "The Imitation Game," thank goodness. I hope it can be staged elsewhere.
> 
> One question I have for the SIG: Babbage obviously knew of Leibniz's work, but was he familiar with Leibniz's writing on what we now call binary 
arithmetic? If so, what did  Babbage think of it? I mention this because binary comes up in the play in several interesting scenes.
> 
> Paul Ceruzzi
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP at si.edu>
> *Sent:* Monday, March 14, 2022 9:50 AM
> *To:* members at SIGCIS.org <members at sigcis.org>
> *Subject:* [SIGCIS-Members] Play about Ada and Babbage
> 
> *External Email - Exercise Caution*
> 
> This message is a little late, and it may appeal only to those of you in the DC area, although I believe the play will be staged in other cities. I haven't seen it yet but plan to next week.  A play about Ada Augusta and Charles Babbage:
> 
> https://avantbard.org/project/ada-and-the-engine/ <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favantbard.org%2Fproject%2Fada-and-the-engine%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cceruzzip%40si.edu%7C6cc2df1f36804975f52508da05c1aa58%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637828627194203039%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=wM8aOK%2BM%2FlBnHnLbECzcuunkob1eH0rgbUVeRbGR914%3D&reserved=0>
> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favantbard.org%2Fproject%2Fada-and-the-engine%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cceruzzip%40si.edu%7C6cc2df1f36804975f52508da05c1aa58%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637828627194203039%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=wM8aOK%2BM%2FlBnHnLbECzcuunkob1eH0rgbUVeRbGR914%3D&reserved=0>
> 	
> Ada and The Engine - Avant Bard Theatre <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favantbard.org%2Fproject%2Fada-and-the-engine%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cceruzzip%40si.edu%7C6cc2df1f36804975f52508da05c1aa58%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637828627194203039%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=wM8aOK%2BM%2FlBnHnLbECzcuunkob1eH0rgbUVeRbGR914%3D&reserved=0>
>  >From prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson, Ada and the Engine is a whimsical scientific history sure to delight audiences.
> avantbard.org
> 
> Paul Ceruzzi
> 
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