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As to computers connected together, I was a bit surprised to see a
rather speculative report to the Navy on how digital computers could
be interconnected (by radio!) to solve an anti-submarine-warfare
problem, written by Forrester and Everett of MIT's Project Whirlwind
in October, 1947. This was two years before they had one working
computer, let alone two to interconnect.<br>
By 1951, they were demonstrating real-time Whirlwind connected to
a radar station by telephone links, but it wasn't until SAGE that
they had enough hardware to interconnect computers.<br>
You can read their report at <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/45952/MC665_r28_L-2.pdf">https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/45952/MC665_r28_L-2.pdf</a><br>
They obviously didn't get the contract :-)<br>
<br>
/guy<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/25/2021 4:32 AM, Pierre
Mounier-Kuhn wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:1831011734.8842143.1629880323357.JavaMail.zimbra@msh-paris.fr">
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12pt; color: #000000">
<div><span style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times,
serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: times new roman, new
york, times, serif;">Hello Doug,</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;"><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;">Other members (particularly Tom Haigh
and Peter Eckstein) have objected already that Turing's 1936
paper <i>Computable Numbers</i> was essentially a solution
to an abstract problem of mathematical logic, NOT the
invention/project of a universal computer, which appeared a
decade later in the ENIAC team and the Von Neumann reports.
(Warning: You've innocently walked into a worldwide quarrel
"Historians vs. Martin Davis' <em>The Universal Computer:
The Road from Leibniz to Turing"</em>!)<br>
</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;"><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;">Yet this does not alter the main object
of your query, to which the answer is definitely your option
n°2. As far as I know, just like designing the first
computers was essentially an engineers' effort (inventing
storage devices, etc.), "people first begin hooking
computers up to one another experimentally, and then a
theorist subsequently created an idea to describe/frame what
was happening". Peter Eckstein's message mentions Binac,
which is a remarkable "first" case; it was designed by an
engineers' company to solve a practical problem.<br>
</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;"><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;">From what I have seen in Europe, the
teams which designed early computers included telecom
engineers, who quite "naturally" experimented with distant
connections between a computer and a teleprinter, then
imagined how to integrate computers in data networks and
found a need for that in air-defense systems. An example is
given in the memoirs of FH Raymond, published in 1989 in the
<em>Annals of the History of Computing</em>, "SEA: An
Adventure with a Sad Ending": This small French computer
company demonstrated in 1955 a remote processing link
between its Paris computer and a teleprinter installed in
Brussels at a professional fair. Shortly after, Raymond
wrote a report suggesting to replace, in the future, paper
with electronic data in the phone directory. His company
simultaneously participated in the design of computerized
air-defense systems (the contract was finally won by IBM
France in 1958), which brings us nearer to the
interconnection of computers, not just to remote-processing.
France was some 5 years behind the US and Britain in
computer development, so what I describe here certainly goes
for other countries. The Soviet side is particularly
interesting (see "InterNyet", Sacha Gerovitch's
publications, etc.)<br>
</span></div>
<div><br>
<div><span style="font-family: times new roman, new york,
times, serif;" data-mce-style="font-family: times new
roman, new york, times, serif;">For more suggestions of
readings, I would just copy-paste Tom Haigh's message.</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;">Regarding theoretical
work, one could add a subsidiary question : To what extent
were theoretical studies of digital networks extensions of
studies about data flows within a computer (queuing
problems, etc.), and what were the radically novel
problems raised by digital network design?</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;">Best,<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;">Pierre<br>
<br>
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn<br>
CNRS, Sorbonne Université & CentraleSupelec<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://cnrs.academia.edu/PierreMounierKuhn">https://cnrs.academia.edu/PierreMounierKuhn</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://laboutique.edpsciences.fr/produit/846/9782759818198/Histoire%20illustree%20de%20linformatique">http://laboutique.edpsciences.fr/produit/846/9782759818198/Histoire%20illustree%20de%20linformatique</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.rdv-histoire.com/mounier-kuhn-pierre-eric">http://www.rdv-histoire.com/mounier-kuhn-pierre-eric</a><br
data-mce-bogus="1">
</span></div>
<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<hr id="zwchr" data-marker="__DIVIDER__">
<div data-marker="__HEADERS__"><b>De: </b>"Douglas Lucas"
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:dal@riseup.net"><dal@riseup.net></a><br>
<b>À: </b>"members" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:members@sigcis.org"><members@sigcis.org></a><br>
<b>Envoyé: </b>Mardi 24 Août 2021 23:44:24<br>
<b>Objet: </b>[SIGCIS-Members] Query about invention of wired
networking<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div data-marker="__QUOTED_TEXT__">
<p>Dear SIGCIS members,<br>
</p>
<p>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>Computable Numbers</i> (fundamental theorem of
arithmetic, Gödel encoding, etc). A fairly straightforward
question occurred to me, one I hope this list can help
answer:<br>
</p>
<p>As is well known, Turing's 1936 paper <i>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>Computable
Numbers </i>came into existence, and only later are
physical computers actually built, initially as standalone,
airgapped devices.<br>
</p>
<p>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>To put it another way, in terms of a simple standardized
test-like verbal analogy, <i>Computable Numbers</i> is to
airgapped computers as ??? is to wired/cabled networking of
computers.<br>
</p>
<p>I omit wireless connections (e.g., Bluetooth) for the time
being.</p>
<p>Thanks much,</p>
<p>Doug Lucas<br>
</p>
<br>
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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>
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