In the UK: Douglas Hartree, and I'll add another recommendation
for Vivian Bowden.
Hartree's definition of the electronic computer as an
unprecedentedly fast but counterintuitively stupid problem-solving
tool which could do nothing but follow instructions literally –
which appears in his Nature paper, inaugural address, and
various media sources around 1946 – may well have been the sole
passage point for this characterisation into sources aimed at
non-specialists in the UK. It was certainly picked up directly by
Bowden, whose 1953 collection Faster Than Thought has also
been mentioned in a couple of replies. FTT was the first
book-length treatment of computers written (in part!) for
non-specialist readers in the UK, and was also, judging from
Bowden's correspondence, in surprisingly high demand in the USA.
I remember Brian Randell once mentioning that the revival of
Charles Babbage's name and significance was, on his assessment,
begun by Leslie Comrie, who transmitted it to Hartree, who
transmitted it to Bowden. I suspect the same may be true of the
standard "fast calculating tool" characterisation of computing
machines more generally. Opposing this, of course, was the concept
of the computer as capable of learning and creativity, as seeded
by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper and followed up by Jack Good and
Donald Michie.
Hope this helps!
All best
James
On 17/03/2022 14:58, Evan Koblentz
wrote:
I’m
interested in a new-to-me research angle: the people who
changed computing by writing about it.
Lovelace
comes to mind. So do Vannevar Bush and Edmund Berkeley.
- Who else should I consider from
prior to 1965? (I have the microcomputer generation
covered.)
- Are there existing papers on this
subject?
_______________________________________________
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 http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org