<html>
  <head>
    <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
  </head>
  <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
    <p>These days, on encountering any news story or feature that seems
      to be touting a particularly bizarre claim, I try to make sure I
      look at the text without reference to the headline, which is often
      constructed by a subeditor without input or right of veto from the
      author. (Same applies to standfirsts, where these are used: I have
      seen some particularly mad examples of this form, even when both
      the headline and article are restrained.) As Tom points out, Chris
      Dixon's <i>Atlantic</i> piece has its problems, but is
      considerably saner than its headline. <br>
    </p>
    <p>"How Aristotle Created the Computer" has an unfortunate ring of
      self-parody for anyone familiar with technological precursoritis.
      I was reminded of a line from the <i>TVGoHome</i> book: "Recent
      archaeological digs have unearthed evidence of a primitive Inca
      television set. Unlike modern units it had no screen, and
      resembled a decorative cup. Instead of broadcasting programmes,
      historians believe it was mainly used for drinking liquid." <br>
    </p>
    <p>JS<br>
    </p>
    <br>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 23 Mar 17 21:39, Seamus Sweeney
      wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote
cite="mid:CABXx8ndmskWe1O11Dgg-oq2vvY5AKg-cj0mN7-GKGgWd=ZmAyg@mail.gmail.com"
      type="cite">
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
      <div dir="ltr">As often happens, dear old Ireland can claim an
        even earlier invention:  - <a moz-do-not-send="true"
          href="https://csiweb.ucd.ie/content/symbol-vec-newgrange">https://csiweb.ucd.ie/content/symbol-vec-newgrange</a>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div><span
style="color:rgb(102,102,102);font-family:tahoma;font-size:12px;background-color:rgb(239,239,239)">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.</span><br>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="gmail_extra"><br>
        <div class="gmail_quote">On 23 March 2017 at 21:34, Thomas Haigh
          <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
              href="mailto:thomas.haigh@gmail.com" target="_blank">thomas.haigh@gmail.com</a>></span>
          wrote:<br>
          <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
            .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
            <div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-US">
              <div class="m_5899476957171025353WordSection1">
                <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                    style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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.</span></p>
                <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                    style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                    style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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.</span></p>
                <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                    style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                    style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Tom</span></p>
                <p class="MsoNormal"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
                    name="m_5899476957171025353__MailEndCompose"><span
                      style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></a></p>
                <span></span>
                <div>
                  <div style="border:none;border-top:solid #e1e1e1
                    1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
                    <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
                          style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">
                        David C. Brock [mailto:<a moz-do-not-send="true"
                          href="mailto:dcb@dcbrock.net" target="_blank">dcb@dcbrock.net</a>]
                        <br>
                        <b>Sent:</b> Thursday, March 23, 2017 4:21 PM<br>
                        <b>To:</b> Thomas Haigh <<a
                          moz-do-not-send="true"
                          href="mailto:thomas.haigh@gmail.com"
                          target="_blank">thomas.haigh@gmail.com</a>><br>
                        <b>Cc:</b> David Brock <<a
                          moz-do-not-send="true"
                          href="mailto:dcb@dcbrock.net" target="_blank">dcb@dcbrock.net</a>>;
                        Len Shustek <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
                          href="mailto:len@shustek.com" target="_blank">len@shustek.com</a>>;
                        <a moz-do-not-send="true"
                          href="mailto:members@lists.sigcis.org"
                          target="_blank">members@lists.sigcis.org</a><br>
                        <b>Subject:</b> Re: [SIGCIS-Members] The latest
                        inventor of the computer</span></p>
                  </div>
                </div>
                <div>
                  <div class="h5">
                    <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
                    <p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
                    <div>
                      <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
                      <div>
                        <blockquote
                          style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
                          <div>
                            <p class="MsoNormal">On Mar 23, 2017, at
                              4:48 PM, Thomas Haigh <<a
                                moz-do-not-send="true"
                                href="mailto:thomas.haigh@gmail.com"
                                target="_blank">thomas.haigh@gmail.com</a>>
                              wrote:</p>
                          </div>
                          <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
                          <div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Better
                                  than the title, perhaps, but
                                  everything is relative.</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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.”<span
class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span><a
                                    moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/CACMActuallyTuringDidNotInventTheComputer.pdf"
                                    target="_blank"><span
                                      style="color:#954f72">http://www.<wbr>tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/<wbr>CACMActuallyTuringDidNotInvent<wbr>TheComputer.pdf</span></a></span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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:</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div style="margin-left:.5in">
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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….</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div style="margin-left:.5in">
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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.</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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.
                                   </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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).</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"></span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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.</span></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"></span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"></span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Best
                                  wishes,</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Tom</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">-----Original
                                  Message-----<br>
                                  From: Members [<a
                                    moz-do-not-send="true"
                                    href="mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org"
                                    target="_blank"><span
                                      style="color:#954f72">mailto:members-bounces@lists.<wbr>sigcis.org</span></a>]
                                  On Behalf Of Len Shustek<br>
                                  Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 3:11 PM<br>
                                  To:<span
                                    class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span><a
                                    moz-do-not-send="true"
                                    href="mailto:members@lists.sigcis.org"
                                    target="_blank"><span
                                      style="color:#954f72">members@lists.sigcis.org</span></a><br>
                                  Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] The latest
                                  inventor of the computer</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">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".</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><a
                                    moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/03/aristotle-computer/518697/"
                                    target="_blank"><span
                                      style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">https://www.theatlantic.com/<wbr>technology/archive/2017/03/<wbr>aristotle-computer/518697/</span></a></span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The
                                  article is rather better than its
                                  title.</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> </span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">______________________________<wbr>_________________</span></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                  style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">This
                                  email is relayed from members at<span
class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span><a
                                    moz-do-not-send="true"
                                    href="http://sigcis.org/"
                                    target="_blank"><span
                                      style="color:#954f72">sigcis.org</span></a>,
                                  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<span
class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span><a
                                    moz-do-not-send="true"
                                    href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/"
                                    target="_blank"><span
                                      style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">http://lists.sigcis.org/<wbr>pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</span></a><span
class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span><wbr>and you
                                  can change your subscription options
                                  at<span
                                    class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span><a
                                    moz-do-not-send="true"
                                    href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org"
                                    target="_blank"><span
                                      style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">http://lists.sigcis.org/<wbr>listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.<wbr>org</span></a></span></p>
                            </div>
                            <p class="MsoNormal"><span
                                style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
                                This email is relayed from members at<span
class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a
                                moz-do-not-send="true"
                                href="http://sigcis.org/"
                                target="_blank"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#954f72">sigcis.org</span></a><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif">,
                                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<span
                                  class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a
                                moz-do-not-send="true"
                                href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/"
                                target="_blank"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#954f72">http://lists.sigcis.org/<wbr>pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</span></a><span
class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"><span
                                  style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif"> </span></span><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif"><wbr>and
                                you can change your subscription options
                                at<span
                                  class="m_5899476957171025353apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a
                                moz-do-not-send="true"
                                href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org"
                                target="_blank"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#954f72">http://lists.sigcis.org/<wbr>listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.<wbr>org</span></a></p>
                          </div>
                        </blockquote>
                      </div>
                      <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                </div>
              </div>
            </div>
            <br>
            ______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
            This email is relayed from members at <a
              moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://sigcis.org"
              rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">sigcis.org</a>, 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 <a
              moz-do-not-send="true"
              href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/"
              rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/<wbr>pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</a>
            and you can change your subscription options at <a
              moz-do-not-send="true"
              href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org"
              rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/<wbr>listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.<wbr>org</a><br>
          </blockquote>
        </div>
        <br>
      </div>
      <br>
      <fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
      <br>
      <pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
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 <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/">http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</a> and you can change your subscription options at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org">http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org</a></pre>
    </blockquote>
    <br>
  </body>
</html>