<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Hi Doug, <div class=""><br class=""><div class="">There were more early connections than you might think. The electronic computer was largely built out of off-the-shelf parts from the then-100-year old telecom industry: relays, plugboards, vacuum tubes, etc. Leaving aside the question of their direct influence on the very first computers, both Alan Turing and Claude Shannon worked on voice encoding for telecommunications, and Shannon’s initial work on information theory was largely at Bell Labs and in that context. The transistor itself was invented in the late 1940s at Bell Labs. The modem dates back to 1949. There are lots of other examples. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So while early computers may have been largely standalone, they partly grew out of the telecom industry. They even borrowed paper tape readers from telegraph equipment, not to mention the teleprinter to be used as a computer terminal. Most undersea data cables today still follow the routes laid down in the 19th century for telegraphy. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In fact, part of the reason most early computers were standalone is that communication in general <i class="">was</i> already well-automated and thus cheap. By contrast calculation and data processing (the latter even with punched card equipment) remained very expensive, and was an attractive market for early computer companies. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Computers communicated with their own peripherals from early on, but most early companies saw little market value in making them connect easily with each other. Only specialized users like militaries bothered to try until the later 1960s, and the rest is networking history. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Info on some of the above is in the online version of our “Revolution” exhibition at the Computer History Museum, see Networking gallery here: <a href="https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/networking/19/371" class="">https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/networking/19/371</a>. The exhibition also covers the general history of networking and computing </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Many histories tend to focus on either computing or telecom. For a reference that looks specifically at the intertwined history of computing and telecom/datacom, I suggest Jim Pelkey’s <i class="">History of Computer Communications</i>, which we host online at CHM along with transcripts of his 80+ original interviews (<a href="https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/" class="">https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/</a>). Jim and Andrew Russell are doing an update of the book with ACM Press. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best, Marc</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">p.s. In terms of air gaps, note that even standalone early personal computers got viruses! They simply arrived via floppy disk – sneakernet – rather than actual networks. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="font-family: Geneva; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px;" class=""><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><a href="https://computerhistory.org/profile/marc-weber/" class=""><font face="Arial" class=""><b style="font-size: 12px;" class="">Marc Weber</b></font></a></div><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Arial" class=""><b style="font-size: 12px;" class="">Curatorial Director, <span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" class="">Internet History Program</span></b></font></div><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Arial" style="font-size: 12px;" class=""><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" class="">Computer History Museum, </span><font class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043</font></font></div><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Arial" style="font-size: 12px;" class=""><a href="mailto:marc@webhistory.org" class="">marc@webhistory.org</a> </font><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;" class="">|</span><span style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial;" class=""> +1 415 282 6868</span></div><div style="font-family: Geneva; margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Arial;" class=""><a href="http://computerhistory.org/nethistory" class="">computerhistory.org/nethistory</a></span><font class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> | </font><span style="font-family: Arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;" class="">Co-founder, Web History Center and Project</span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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<br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Aug 24, 2021, at 14:44, Douglas Lucas <<a href="mailto:dal@riseup.net" class="">dal@riseup.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" class="">
<div class=""><p class="">Dear SIGCIS members,<br class="">
</p><p class="">I'm a freelance writer/journalist who's published in multiple
news outlets on hacktivism and who's lurked on this email list for
some time. The past several months, I've been reading a great
dealing about Alan Turing and the math behind <i class="">Computable
Numbers</i> (fundamental theorem of arithmetic, G<span class="">ö</span>del
encoding, etc). A fairly straightforward question occurred to me,
one I hope this list can help answer:<br class="">
</p><p class="">As is well known, Turing's 1936 paper <i class="">Computable Numbers</i>
invented the concept of a universal machine, which includes what
today would be called an airgapped computer. For quite a while,
all computers (universal machines) were airgapped devices. The
historical casual chain is clear: first the idea documented in <i class="">Computable
Numbers </i>came into existence, and only later are physical
computers actually built, initially as standalone, airgapped
devices.<br class="">
</p><p class="">But how did plugging computers into one another with wires/cables
begin? Did a thinker first conceive of a profound idea
underpinning wired/cabled networking, and then only later,
engineers implemented that concept in the physical realm? Or, did
people first begin hooking computers up to one another, perhaps
experimentally, and then a theorist subsequently created an idea
to describe/frame what was happening (maybe a mathematical graph
theory or something)?</p><p class="">To put it another way, in terms of a simple standardized
test-like verbal analogy, <i class="">Computable Numbers</i> is to
airgapped computers as ??? is to wired/cabled networking of
computers.<br class="">
</p><p class="">I omit wireless connections (e.g., Bluetooth) for the time being.</p><p class="">Thanks much,</p><p class="">Doug Lucas<br class="">
</p>
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