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I appreciate the reading list, thanks!<br>
<br>
As to Aristotle's point -- I absolutely agree they threw off their
own analog history, and ran head first into software complexity. I
do recall notes in some of the management reports along the lines of
"hurry up and hire more programmers or we'll have computer with no
programs!" Of course the Whirlwind team quickly got on board the
Automatic Programming train, although I think they had lots of
company on that trip.<br>
<br>
I think Thomas's point of "why did they do it at all" is well
taken. The WW team had spent some years convincing the Navy that a
digital flight simulator would be better than an analog one, so when
the contacts with the Air Force came into play, they were already on
a digital path. But as Thomas says, MIT's deep connections with the
military must have been critical in convincing the Air Force that
something that would have been a hare-brained idea from anyone else,
was a serious and viable proposal from MIT.<br>
<br>
I look forward to Haigh & Ceruzzi's book, and will add all the
suggestions to my reading list .<br>
<br>
Thanks for all the advice!<br>
/guy<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/25/2021 3:29 AM, Pierre
Mounier-Kuhn wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:1845316721.11085067.1619335760814.JavaMail.zimbra@msh-paris.fr">
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<div><span style="font-family: "times new roman",
"new york", times, serif;"
data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york',
times, serif;">To complement the previous commentaries by
Aristotle, Paul and Bernard, I would recommend reading
Ronald R. Kline's chapter on "Inventing an Analog Past and a
Digital Future" in "<em>Exploring the Early Digital</em>"
(Thomas Haigh, ed.), a remarkable "historicization" of these
categories. </span><br>
</div>
<div><span style="font-family: "times new roman",
"new york", times, serif;"
data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york',
times, serif;">Let's add that Von Neumann's "<em>The
Computer and the Brain</em>" (chapter 1) contain a
convincing demonstration of the intrinsic superiority of the
digital over the analogue for a large class of problems.<br
data-mce-bogus="1">
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: "times new roman",
"new york", times, serif;"
data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york',
times, serif;">Best,</span><br data-mce-bogus="1">
</div>
<div><span style="font-family: "times new roman",
"new york", times, serif;"
data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york',
times, serif;">Pierre</span><br data-mce-bogus="1">
</div>
<div><br data-mce-bogus="1">
</div>
<div><span style="font-family: "times new roman",
"new york", times, serif;"
data-mce-style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york',
times, serif;">NB: lesson: Never ask a simple question on
this list, unless you want to be assigned with a year-long
list of must-reads!</span><br data-mce-bogus="1">
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<hr id="zwchr" data-marker="__DIVIDER__">
<div data-marker="__HEADERS__"><b>De: </b>"Aristotle Tympas"
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:tympas@phs.uoa.gr"><tympas@phs.uoa.gr></a><br>
<b>À: </b>"Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan"
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:bernardgeoghegan2010@u.northwestern.edu"><bernardgeoghegan2010@u.northwestern.edu></a><br>
<b>Cc: </b>"members" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:members@sigcis.org"><members@sigcis.org></a><br>
<b>Envoyé: </b>Dimanche 25 Avril 2021 01:52:12<br>
<b>Objet: </b>Re: [SIGCIS-Members] whirlwind, radar and
real-time tracking<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div data-marker="__QUOTED_TEXT__">
<p>Dear colleagues,</p>
<p>Following in what Bernard Geoghegan just wrote, regarding
"the
continuity of the control problem [that] trumps the
significance of
analog/digital" demarcation:</p>
<p>The history of the Whirlwind computer has so far been told
as an
evolutionist history of leaving behind a problematic initial
start with
the inferior analog computer in favor of the superior
digital computer. We
have yet to have a story that acknowledges that this
actually meant
leaving, initially, behind the analog only to find ahead,
eventually, the
problem of software. The limits left behind by the digital
independence of
the analog were actually transformed into limits due to the
dependence of
the digital hardware by the digital software. With the
software side of
computing, just like the analog side of computing, pointing
to the
indispensability of skilled computing labor. The continuity
of the problem
of the dependance on computing labor -to produce, initially,
the computing
analogy, and eventually, the computing software- does,
indeed, trump the
significance of the digital. To put it simply: Why should we
continue with
a history of Whirlwind (and all the computers of this
period) as an escape
from the limits of the analog and not, also, as an encounter
with the
comparable limits of software. And, as we now very well
know, the limits
of software have overdetermined the history of computing (we
know it
through a series of arguments/works -from Mahoney to
Ensmenger- on the
inability to control software production by
taylorist-fordist production
methods).</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Aristotle</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="bodyclass">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;">Hi
Colleagues,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;">This is
quite fascinating—thanks Guy, and everyone else. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;">I worked a
bit on the longer arc of vigilance and aerial defense
WWI through Cold
War, leaping from WW2 radar to digital SAGE
(over/through Whirlwind) in
the essay below. Taking cues from Mindell, I suggest
that the continuity
of the control priblem trumps the significance of
analog/digital for some
key concerns:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan, “An
Ecology of
Operations: Vigilance, Radar, and the Birth of the
Computer Screen,”
<em>Representations</em> 147, no. 1 (August 2019):
59–95, <a title="This
external link will open in a new window"
href="https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2019.147.1.59"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">
https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2019.147.1.59</a>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m deeply indebted to Paul’s book,
mentioned
already. More generally, for situating these
technologies in a wider
network of technologies and protocols cutting across
analog and digital,
WW2 and Cold War talks and technologies, I also found
helpful:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi, “Cognitive
and Perceptual
Training in the Cold War Man-Machine System,” in <em>Uncertain
Empire:
American History and the Idea of the Cold War</em>,
ed. Joel Isaac and
Duncan Bell (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014),
267–93. (On the human
element but the training was so thorough and rigorous,
and the
systems-design so pervasive, it’s hard to view “human
factors” as not also
a technical element, perhaps even a technology)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Christoph Borbach and Tristan
Thielmann, “Über das
Denken in Ko-Operationsketten. Arbeiten am
Luftlagebild,” in
<em>Materialität der Kooperation</em>, ed. Sebastian
Gießmann, Tobias
Röhl, and Ronja Trischler (Wiesbaden: Springer
Fachmedien, 2019), 115–67,
<a title="This external link will open in a new window"
href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-20805-9_5"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-20805-9_5</a>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Also:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thomas Parke Hughes, <em>Rescuing
Prometheus</em>
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1998). [Chapter 2 on SAGE,
but I seem to recall
discussions of Whirlwind, too]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Stephen B. Johnson, <em>The United
States Air Force
and the Culture of Innovation, 1945-1965</em>
(Washington, D.C.: Air Force
History and Museums Program, 2002). (I think this may
have something. Not
sure)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For a philosophical and speculative
take on these
kinds of systems and their signifance, including fallout
in gaming: Claus
Pias, “The Game Player’s Duty: The User as the Gestalt
of the Ports,” in
<em>Media Archaeology: Approaches, Applications, and
Implications</em>,
ed. Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka (Berkeley:
University of California
Press, 2011), 164–83. [I think his book on computer
games has relevant
material too]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;">I’d be
delighted to keep apprised of your continuing work on
this topic Guy,
thank you so much for sharing!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;">Best,
b</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div style="border: none; border-top: solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;
padding: 3.0pt
0cm 0cm 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><strong><span
style="font-size: 12.0pt; color: black;">From: </span></strong><span
style="font-size: 12.0pt; color: black;">Members on
behalf of Paul N.
Edwards <br>
<strong>Date: </strong>Saturday, 24 April 2021 at
20:56<br>
<strong>To: </strong>Guy Fedorkow <br>
<strong>Cc: </strong>members <br>
<strong>Subject: </strong>Re: [SIGCIS-Members]
whirlwind, radar and
real-time tracking</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Guy, seconding Pierre’s good
response and adding that
in 1951, analog computers were still far faster than
digital for most
complex calculations, because they are inherently
parallel processors.
Digital machines were also prone to *very* frequent
failure. Most sensors
were analog, too, providing no numerical readouts. Few
control engineers
would have even considered a digital computer for any
real-time
application until the second half of that decade, and
even then they were
not the natural choice for most applications.</p>
<div> </div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">The early chapters of my book The
Closed World:
Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War
America (Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1996) cover SAGE and the surrounding
computing landscape of
the 1940s-1950s.</p>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Other resources on SAGE:</p>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica; color:
black;">Everett, Robert R., Charles A. Zraket,
and Herbert D. Benington.
“Sage: A Data-Processing System for Air
Defense.” Proceedings of the
Eastern Joint Computer Conference (1957):
339–45.</span></p>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica; color:
black;">Redmond, Kent C. and Thomas M. Smith.
Project Whirlwind: The
History of a Pioneer Computer. Boston: Digital
Press, 1980.</span></p>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica; color:
black;">Valley, George E., Jr. “How the Sage
Development Began.” Annals of
the History of Computing 7, no. 3 (1985):
196–226.</span></p>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:
Helvetica; color:
black;">Redmond, Kent C. and Thomas M. Smith.<br>
From Whirlwind to Mitre:
The R&d Story of the Sage Air Defense
Computer. Cambridge: MIT Press,
2000.</span></p>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Best,</p>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paul Edwards</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<blockquote style="margin-top: 5.0pt;
margin-bottom: 5.0pt;">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On Apr 23, 2021, at
16:41, Guy Fedorkow
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:guy.fedorkow@gmail.com">guy.fedorkow@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Greetings Colleagues,<br>
I've been working on
restoring a 1951 Whirlwind program,
written at MIT, used to demonstrate
real-time tracking of aircraft with radar
for the purposes of guiding an
interception (the Cold War was in full
flight in the 1950's). This work
ultimately led to the massive SAGE air
defense network in the US.<br>
You
can see some rather informal preliminary
notes on the work at<br>
<a title="This external link will open in
a new window"
href="https://www.historia-mollimercium.com/whirlwind/WW-Track-while-Scan-Draft-Notes-v1.pdf"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.historia-mollimercium.com/whirlwind/WW-Track-while-Scan-Draft-Notes-v1.pdf</a><br>
The program does work in simulation; you
can see a four-minute video of
the simulator running an intercept at<br>
<a title="This external link
will open in a new window"
href="https://www.historia-mollimercium.com/whirlwind/Track-while-scan-Apr-23-2021.mp4"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.historia-mollimercium.com/whirlwind/Track-while-scan-Apr-23-2021.mp4</a><br>
Spoiler alerts: The original really did
display moving dots on a CRT, but
the graphics are "spartan" to say the
least. And nothing in particular
happens when the intercept actually
happens.<br>
<br>
Would anyone know of
contemporaneous work involving digital
computers for either radar tracking
or real-time computing around 1951? I
think all the familiar digital
computers from those years were used in
applications where batch operation
was perfectly acceptable, e.g., computing
ballistics tables.<br>
Innovations like this rarely occur in a
complete vacuum, but I don't see
references to any similar digital
computing projects.<br>
If anyone has
pointers, do let me know!<br>
Thanks<br>
Guy Fedorkow<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="color:
black;">________________________</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:
12.0pt;"><span
style="color:
black;"><a title="This
external link will
open in a new window"
href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/paul-edwards" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">Paul
N.
Edwards</a></span><br
data-mce-bogus="1">
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="color: black;">Director,
<a title="This
external link will
open in a new window"
href="http://sts.stanford.edu" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Program
on Science, Technology
&
Society</a></span><br
data-mce-bogus="1">
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="color: black;">William
J. Perry Fellow
in International
Security and Senior
Research Scholar</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="color: black;"><a
title="This external
link will open in a
new window"
href="http://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/"
target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">Center
for International
Security and
Cooperation</a></span><br
data-mce-bogus="1">
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="color: black;">Co-Director,
<a title="This external
link will open in a
new window"
href="https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/stanford-existential-risks-initiative"
target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">Stanford
Existential Risks
Initiative</a></span><br
data-mce-bogus="1">
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="color: black;">Stanford
University<br>
<br>
Professor of <a
title="This external
link will open in a
new window"
href="http://www.si.umich.edu/"
target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">Information</a>
and <a title="This
external link will
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href="http://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">History</a>
(Emeritus)</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="color: black;">University
of
Michigan</span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><br>
<br>
-- <br>
Aristotle Tympas, <a href="https://en.uoa.gr/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">National
and Kapodistrian University of Athens</a><br>
Professor & Chair, <a href="http://www.phs.uoa.gr/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">Department of
History and Philosophy of
Science</a><br>
Faculty, <a href="https://hpst.phs.uoa.gr/" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">Graduate
Program ‘History and Philosophy of Science and
Technology’</a><br>
Director, <a href="https://sts.phs.uoa.gr/" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">Graduate
Program ‘Science, Technology, Society—Science, Technology,
Studies</a>’<br>
<br>
Publications (links-extracts): <a
href="http://scholar.uoa.gr/tympas" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://scholar.uoa.gr/tympas</a><br>
<br>
Mail: P.O. Box 18310, Athens 11610, Greece, Email:
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:tympas@phs.uoa.gr">tympas@phs.uoa.gr</a></p>
<br>
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