[SIGCIS-Members] Our "Automation by Design..." Special Issue of IEEE Annals is out!
David Nofre
d.nofre at gmail.com
Wed Dec 31 07:39:04 PST 2025
This may interest to those working on Zuse, although you may already
know the source. Years ago, while doing research on the figure of H. H.
Goldstine, I found a report in the Herman H. Goldstine Collection at
Hampshire College of the interrogation of Zuse's business
partner Gerhard Overhoff. The report is dated 8 November 1946 and the
Overhoff's interrogation was carried out by the Air Interrogation Unit
of the Air Division Headquarters United States Forces in Austria. The
report is four pages long and includes, among other things, a brief
description of Overhoff's career at Henschel A.G., a description of
Zuse's machines and their applications during war time, a brief history
of "Zuse Apparatebau", as well as a comparison with US machines at that
time (ENIAC, etc.) -all based on Overhoff's own testimony.
Best,
David Nofre
Op 30-12-2025 om 21:23 schreef Brian E Carpenter via Members:
> I really wish I had known about all this on June 17, 1992, when I had
> lunch with Zuse in the CERN cafeteria. I had the chance to ask him any
> question I wanted. He was at CERN to give a seminar, but for some
> exraordinary reason nobody had organised a lunch for him -- normally
> at CERN invited seminar speakers were given a nice lunch with
> carefully selected attendees. So I took him to the cafeteria, where we
> lined up like everybody else. The main question I had for him was
> about when he learned of Turing's work, and he told me that he had no
> knowledge of "On Computable Numbers" before 1948. He also said
> something to the effect that he knew of Shannon's work before then
> (but that seems odd, given that Shannon's famous papers were dated
> 1948/49).
>
> My brief notes from that day indicate that I couldn't understand his
> seminar.
>
> Regards/Ngā mihi
> Brian Carpenter
>
> On 31-Dec-25 05:22, herbert.bruderer--- via Members wrote:
>> In 1949, the German computer pioneer Konrad Zuse and his closest
>> colleagues considered fleeing to Switzerland with their families.
>> This is evident from a request dated October 20, 1949, which the
>> president of the Swiss Federal School Board, Hans Palmann, sent to
>> the relevant border authorities. In this letter, which was only
>> recently discovered in the archive of the ETH Library in Zurich, he
>> asked the authorities at the Swiss-German border not to turn Zuse and
>> his colleagues back.
>> For more details see
>> https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-010001424
>> <https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-010001424>
>> Warum wollte Konrad Zuse 1949 in die Schweiz fliehen?
>> <https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/entities/publication/5da6f225-32b6-4890-9bff-0f0ab3cbaec6>
>> and
>> Bruderer, Herbert: Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing,
>> Springer Nature Switzerland AG, Cham, 3^rd edition 2020, 2 volumes,
>> 2113 pages, 715 illustrations, 151 tables, translated from the German
>> by Dr John McMinn, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40974-6
>> <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40974-6>
>> Best,
>> Herbert
>>> Ceruzzi, Paul via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org> hat am
>>> 30.12.2025 16:30 CET geschrieben:
>>> Congratulations on an excellent issue of the /IEEE Annals/. I
>>> especially enjoyed the piece by Raúl Rojas
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Ra%FAl&surname=Rojas>,
>>> about Konrad Zuse and Operation Paperclip. It clarified a lot of
>>> questions I had about Zuse's postwar activities. One of the reports
>>> retrieved from the Archives mentioned concern that the US Army had
>>> about Zuse's plant being located so close to the East German border.
>>> More than that: Zuse's residence, in the town of Huenfeld, was very
>>> close not only to the border, but to the "Fulda Gap": the low plain
>>> that the US and NATO thought would be a route of a Soviet invasion
>>> to the west. It has been called "the hottest place in the Cold War."
>>> I can't find the documents, but I had read evidence that the Army
>>> made plans to secure Zuse in the event of an invasion across the Gap.
>>> Here's the Wikipedia entry about the modest museum/installation
>>> commemorating the Gap:
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observation_Post_Alpha
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observation_Post_Alpha>
>>> Best,
>>> Paul Ceruzzi
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> *From:* Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of
>>> Jeffrey Yost via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org>
>>> *Sent:* Saturday, December 27, 2025 5:26 PM
>>> *To:* Troy Astarte <t.k.astarte at swansea.ac.uk>
>>> *Cc:* sigcis <members at sigcis.org>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Our "Automation by Design..."
>>> Special Issue of IEEE Annals is out!
>>>
>>> *External Email - Exercise Caution*
>>>
>>> Many thanks Troy!! Colette, Con and I are so grateful for your
>>> amazing work and guidance in helping to make this issue happen and
>>> to making it shine!!
>>> I posted on social platforms on the articles that we as guest
>>> editors worked directly with, and quickly cut and pasted from that
>>> to the SIGCIS listserv before heading out to visit family in the
>>> Pacific NW for the holidays. Tremendous thanks to all who
>>> contributed content appearing in the issue--I so enjoyed and
>>> appreciate these wonderful department articles and the issue in its
>>> entirity!!
>>> Happy upcoming New Year's Eve/Day to all!
>>> Best, Jeff
>>> ** * * * * **
>>> *Jeffrey Yost, Ph.D. *
>>> *Director, Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information &
>>> Culture*
>>> *Research Professor, History of Sci., Tech., Med., University of
>>> Minnesota*
>>> **
>>> */Just Code: Power, Inequality and the Political Economy of
>>> IT/ (Johns Hopkins U. Press out in Nov. 2025 co-edited w/ Gerardo
>>> Con Diaz) <https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/12804/just-code> *
>>> */Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry/ (MIT
>>> Press) <https://amzn.to/3gqe4R6>*
>>> *Studies in Computing and Culture book series, Johns Hopkins U.
>>> Press
>>> <https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/series/studies-computing-and-culture>
>>> *Co-Editor (w/ Con Diaz)
>>> *PI, NSF-funded CBI project "Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives,
>>> Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy."*
>>> *Blockchain & Society*
>>> <https://www.blockchainandsociety.com/>* (crit. inq. essays &
>>> resources)* (Founder/Leader)
>>>
>>> */Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture
>>> <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces> /*Co-Editor-in-Chief (w/ Amanda
>>> Wick)
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Dec 27, 2025, 8:01 AM Troy Astarte
>>> <t.k.astarte at swansea.ac.uk <mailto:t.k.astarte at swansea.ac.uk>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear all,
>>> Jeff, many thanks for announcing this for me! Its publication
>>> while I was at a conference/on leave delayed my own announcement.
>>> I’ll forgo an additional email, but will give the full ToC here.
>>> You can find the issue on the Computer Society Digital Library
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04> or IEEE Xplore
>>> <https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=85> according
>>> to your preference/subscription. Here is the table of contents:
>>> Guest Editors’ Introduction
>>> Introduction to Automation by Design
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/11304148/2cygClfVW8w>
>>> by Colette Perold
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Colette&surname=Perold>,
>>> Jeffrey R. Yost
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Jeffrey%20R.&surname=Yost>
>>> Theme Articles: Automation by Design
>>> Digital Construction Comes to the Pacific Northwest: Timber and
>>> the Landscapes of Automation
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/11031182/27sQG5Y18u4>
>>> by Megan Wiessner
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Megan&surname=Wiessner>
>>>
>>> Machinery of Ethnic Cleansing: Punched Card Machines and the
>>> 1920 Greek Population Census
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/11208589/2aYh0oUQOZi>
>>> by Christos Karampatsos
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Christos&surname=Karampatsos>,
>>> Polyxeni Malisova
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Polyxeni&surname=Malisova>
>>>
>>> Autocoding at Work: COBOL and the Specification of the American
>>> Office
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/10938681/25n2yWIBtYI>
>>> by David E. Dunning
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=David%20E.&surname=Dunning>
>>>
>>> Governing Collaboration: Data and Work Relationships in U.K.
>>> Software for Building Design, 1970–1980
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/11029403/27qQcf3RL6E>
>>> by Eliza Pertigkiozoglou
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Eliza&surname=Pertigkiozoglou>
>>> The Legality of Logistics: On Techno-Orientalism and Geopolitics
>>> in Semiconductor Production
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/10964384/25UAaLnTI88>
>>> by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Ranjodh%20Singh&surname=Dhaliwal>
>>> Theme Think Piece
>>> Computing Racial Order
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/11304157/2cygCLOhoyI>
>>> by Jason Ludwig
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Jason&surname=Ludwig>
>>> Department: Anecdotes
>>> Konrad Zuse and Operation Paperclip
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/11304160/2cygBlQCgta>
>>> by Raúl Rojas
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Ra%FAl&surname=Rojas>
>>> A Simulated Differential Analyzer
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/11304149/2cygBMGhfPi>
>>> by Richard Pawson
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Richard&surname=Pawson>
>>> Department: Events and Sightings
>>> “The Computer in Motion”: Symposium Report From the 27th
>>> International Congress of History of Science and Technology (ICHST)
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2025/04/11304150/2cygBSWAvLy>
>>> by Ksenia Tatarchenko
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Ksenia&surname=Tatarchenko>,
>>> Barbara Hof
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Barbara&surname=Hof>,
>>> Arianna Borrelli
>>> <https://www.computer.org/csdl/search/default?type=author&givenName=Arianna&surname=Borrelli>
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Dr. Troy Kaighin Astarte (they/them / nhw)
>>> I often dictate messages due to motor disability; please forgive
>>> any oddities resulting.
>>>
>>> Senior Lecturer, Computer Science / Uwch Darlithydd, Cyfrifiadureg
>>> Swansea University / Prifysgol Abertawe
>>> Editor-in-Chief / Prif Olygydd, /IEEE Annals of the History of
>>> Computing/
>>> //
>>> troyastarte.com <https://troyastarte.com/>
>>>
>>> For students: my drop in hours are on the Intranet
>>> <https://fse-intranet.swan.ac.uk/intranet/staff_officehours?selected_staff_id=203842> (office
>>> CoFo 407)
>>> I fyfyrwyr: mae fy oriau swyddfa ar y fewnrwyd.
>>> Meeting booking: via Office Booking
>>> <https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/8e101a47e22e4af793d033901758d0e4@Swansea.ac.uk/meetingtype/SVRwCe7HMUGxuT6WGxi68g2?anonymous&ep=mlink>.
>>> Zoom office: https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/my/t.k.astarte
>>> <https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/my/t.k.astarte>
>>>
>>> Every email has a cost to the climate. Please think before
>>> sending short emails.
>>> Mae gan bob e-bost gost i’r hinsawdd. Meddyliwch cyn i chi anfon
>>> e-byst byr.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 19 Dec 2025, at 18:26, Jeffrey Yost via Members
>>>> <members at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members at lists.sigcis.org>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> *CAUTION:* This email originated from outside of Swansea
>>>> University. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
>>>> recognise the sender and know the content is safe.
>>>>
>>>> *RHYBUDD:* Daeth yr e-bost hwn o'r tu allan i Brifysgol
>>>> Abertawe. Peidiwch â chlicio ar atodiadau neu agor atodiadau oni
>>>> bai eich bod chi'n adnabod yr anfonwr a'ch bod yn gwybod bod y
>>>> cynnwys yn ddiogel.
>>>>
>>>> Many thanks to David Hemmendinger for a correction. Given there
>>>> is only 2008 to 2022 content on MUSE for /IEEE Annals/ now, there
>>>> seems to be a few years delay, but it is available now at IEEE
>>>> Xplore. David also pointed out that it is available on the /IEEE
>>>> Annals/ main page too as of today. (it was on Xplore a day earlier,
>>>> yesterday). That CSDL /IEEE Annals'/ URL is: computer.org/annals
>>>> <http://computer.org/annals>
>>>> Best, Jeff
>>>> *Jeffrey Yost, Ph.D. *
>>>> *Director, Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information
>>>> & Culture*
>>>> *Research Professor, History of Sci., Tech., Med., University
>>>> of Minnesota*
>>>> **
>>>> */Just Code: Power, Inequality and the Political Economy of
>>>> IT/ (Johns Hopkins U. Press out in Nov. 2025 co-edited w/ Gerardo
>>>> Con Diaz) <https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/12804/just-code> *
>>>> */Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services
>>>> Industry/ (MIT Press) <https://amzn.to/3gqe4R6>*
>>>> *Studies in Computing and Culture book series, Johns Hopkins U.
>>>> Press
>>>> <https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/series/studies-computing-and-culture>
>>>> *Co-Editor (w/ Con Diaz)
>>>> *PI, NSF-funded CBI project "Mining a Useable Past:
>>>> Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and
>>>> Privacy."*
>>>> *Blockchain & Society*
>>>> <https://www.blockchainandsociety.com/>* (crit. inq. essays &
>>>> resources)* (Founder/Leader)
>>>>
>>>> */Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture
>>>> <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces> /*Co-Editor-in-Chief (w/
>>>> Amanda Wick)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Dec 19, 2025 at 10:45 AM Jeffrey Yost <yostx003 at umn.edu
>>>> <mailto:yostx003 at umn.edu>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>> Wanted to share the news that our special issue of /IEEE
>>>> Annals of the History of Computing/ entitled "Automation by Design:
>>>> Politics, Culture, and Landscape in an Age of Machines That Learn"
>>>> came out yesterday!
>>>> It is now available on IEEE Xplore and soon will be on MUSE
>>>> too. Colette Perold and my historiographically-contextualizing
>>>> article "Introduction to Automation by Design" is open access as
>>>> are a few of the articles (IEEE Digital Library, link below as a
>>>> UMN z link, and many libraries subscribe to IEEE library & or MUSE
>>>> where there is complete access). Special thanks to Honghong Tinn,
>>>> who joined Colette, me, and Con on our 2023 CBI Symposium of the
>>>> same name. It was an interdisciplinary event (History, STS,
>>>> Sociology, Media Studies...) and this issue represents select
>>>> historical-oriented articles. Articles and authors are listed below.
>>>> It was so wonderful to partner with tremendously gifted
>>>> colleagues/friends Colette and Con on this issue and an honor for
>>>> us to work with such an incredibly talented group of article
>>>> authors writing cutting edge scholarship on the history of
>>>> automation/"artificial intelligence"!!
>>>> Many thanks to /IEEE Annals/ EiC Troy Astarte for helpful
>>>> guidance throughout!
>>>> Happy holidays to everyone!
>>>> https://z.umn.edu/AutomationbyDesign
>>>> <https://z.umn.edu/AutomationbyDesign>
>>>> Best, Jeff
>>>> Articles
>>>> Introduction to Automation by Design
>>>> Colette Perold and Jeffrey R. Yost
>>>> 6-10
>>>> Digital Construction Comes to the Pacific Northwest: Timber
>>>> and the Landscapes of Automation
>>>> Megan Wiessner
>>>> 11 - 23
>>>>
>>>> Machinery of Ethnic Cleansing: Punched Card Machines and
>>>> the 1920 Greek Population Census
>>>> Christos Karampatsos;
>>>> Polyxeni Malisova
>>>> 24 - 37
>>>>
>>>> Autocoding at Work: COBOL and the Specification of the
>>>> American Office
>>>> David E. Dunning
>>>> 38 - 49
>>>>
>>>> Governing Collaboration: Data and Work Relationships in
>>>> U.K. Software for Building Design, 1970–1980
>>>> Eliza Pertigkiozoglou
>>>> 50 - 62
>>>>
>>>> The Legality of Logistics: On Techno-Orientalism and
>>>> Geopolitics in Semiconductor Production
>>>> Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
>>>> 63 - 77
>>>>
>>>> Computing Racial Order
>>>> Jason Ludwig
>>>> 79-83
>>>> ** * * * * **
>>>> *Jeffrey Yost, Ph.D. *
>>>> *Director, Charles Babbage Institute for Computing,
>>>> Information & Culture*
>>>> *Research Professor, History of Sci., Tech., Med.,
>>>> University of Minnesota*
>>>> **
>>>> */Just Code: Power, Inequality and the Political Economy of
>>>> IT/ (Johns Hopkins U. Press out in Nov. 2025 co-edited w/ Gerardo
>>>> Con Diaz) <https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/12804/just-code> *
>>>> */Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services
>>>> Industry/ (MIT Press) <https://amzn.to/3gqe4R6>*
>>>> *Studies in Computing and Culture book series, Johns
>>>> Hopkins U. Press
>>>> <https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/series/studies-computing-and-culture>
>>>> *Co-Editor (w/ Con Diaz)
>>>> *PI, NSF-funded CBI project "Mining a Useable Past:
>>>> Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and
>>>> Privacy."*
>>>> *Blockchain & Society*
>>>> <https://www.blockchainandsociety.com/>* (crit. inq. essays &
>>>> resources)* (Founder/Leader)
>>>>
>>>> */Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture
>>>> <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces> /*Co-Editor-in-Chief (w/
>>>> Amanda Wick)
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
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>> Bruderer Informatik
>> Seehaldenstraße 26
>> Postfach 47
>> CH-9401 Rorschach
>> Schweiz/Switzerland
>> Telefon +41 71 855 77 11
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email
>> discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of
>> the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by
>> SIGCIS. The list archives are at
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>
> _______________________________________________
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