I've been researching the use of block diagrams and flow charts in linguistics and acoustics prior to information theory. In part, I want to make the argument that the notion of "the speech chain"--if not the exact phrase--preceded information theory. (It's usually seen as derivative.)

I briefly discuss one of these diagrams, published by E.W. Scripture in 1936, in my article on the history of the sound spectrograph ("Deaf Jam: From Inscription to Reproduction to Information," Social Text 102). But I don't know where this style of diagram originated. Scripture wasn't using these diagrams earlier in his career...

On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 9:06 AM, Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan <bernard.geoghegan@hu-berlin.de> wrote:

Dear SIGCISers,

as long as the conversation is going wonderfully astray, I'd like to seize upon a momentarily less trodden path. Paul wrote:

As an added idea to the discussion on language, we should also recognize non-written languages use widely by engineers and modelers (e.g., block languages, or the diagrams of Bush’s analyzer). These are documented forms of communication, and so forms of language.

I'm writing a little piece at the moment on the Shannon's diagram in consolidating certain notions of communication in broader scientific and popular fields. Can anyone recommend relevant literature on the origins of the block diagram writ large? And I've been surprised not to see any similar diagrams in the earlier papers by Nyquist or Hartley. Anyone have any good citations for key moments in the appearance of block diagrams in electrical engineering-type fields?

Apart from Erhard Schuettpelz's "Eine Ikonographie der Stoerung: Shannons Flussdiagramm der Kommunikation," I haven't found a lot of super relevant material for zeroing in on this particular problem of the diagram. David Kaiser and Deleuze have some great tips for thinking about the work of diagrams and diagrammatic reason but I'd like to find some primary or secondary literature for thinking about its development of digital computing, information theory, electrical engineering, and so on. Tips?

Thanks for any thoughts,
Bernard
-paul

And, one last thing, does anybody know why did Von Neumann choose the term "automata"? Just a coincidence ?

Best,

David Nofre

On 6 November 2014 09:17, Mark Priestley <m.priestley@gmail.com> wrote:

Menabrea wrote, concerning the Analytical Engine:

"the cards are merely a translation of algebraical formulae, or, to express it better, another fom of analytical notation" (quoted on p. 60 of my book "The Science of Operations").

which maybe counts as an early explicit connection between "programming notations" and "language" (scare quotes emphasized). Even the cards of the AE are being described here as language-like.

Once you've got mechanical agency, real or envisaged, it seems to have been very natural for people - eg Babbage, Stibitz, Hopper - to think in terms of communication, and the language metaphor seems to enter as a way of categorizing to the kind of communication going on between humans and calculating machines.

Cheers,
Mark

On 6 Nov 2014 01:04, "David Alan Grier" <grier@gwu.edu> wrote:

If we are going to Lovelace, then we need to go to the Memoirs of the Analytical Society. "It is the spirit of this symbolic language, by that mechanical fact, which carries the eye at one glance through the most intricate modifications of quantity, to condense pages into lines and volumes into pages; shortening the road to discovery, and preserving the mind unfatigued by the continued efforts of attention to the minor parts that it may exert its whole vigor on those which are important". Babbage and Herschel wrote it. Babbage referenced it in his later writings. Lovelace would have certainly known it.

David
--------------------------------
David Alan Grier
Past President, IEEE Computer Society

http://video.dagrier.net
http://erranthashtag.dagrier.net

Associate Professor, International Science & Technology Policy
Elliott School of International Affairs
George Washington University
grier@gwu.edu

On Nov 5, 2014, at 2:07 PM, McMillan, William W <william.mcmillan@cuaa.edu> wrote:

> Do these notes by Ada Lovelace count"
>
> 'The bounds of arithmetic were however outstepped the moment the idea of applying the cards had occurred; and the Analytical Engine does not occupy common ground with mere “calculating machines.” It holds a position wholly its own; and the considerations it suggests are most interesting in their nature. In enabling mechanism to combine together general symbols in successions of unlimited variety and extent, a uniting link is established between the operations of matter and the abstract mental processes of the most abstract branch of mathematical science. A new, a vast, and a powerful language is developed for the future use of analysis, in which to wield its truths so that these may become of more speedy and accurate practical application for the purposes of mankind than the means hitherto in our possession have rendered possible. Thus not only the mental and the material, but the theoretical and the practical in the mathematical world, are brought into more intimate and effective connexion with each other. We are not aware of its being on record that anything partaking in the nature of what is so well designated the Analytical Engine has been hitherto proposed, or even thought of, as a practical possibility, any more than the idea of a thinking or of a reasoning machine'
>
> [emphasis added]
>
> https://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html
>
> Her use of "language" here seems to be specific to the expression of computation and reasoning.
>
> - Bill
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: members-bounces@sigcis.org [members-bounces@sigcis.org] on behalf of Marie Gevers [marie.gevers@unamur.be]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2014 4:13 AM
> To: members
> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Origin of 'language'?
>
> I wonder by whom and when the word 'language' was used for the first time in the framework of computer sciences.
> Can anybody enlighten me?
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Marie
> --
> [cid:part1.03020706.06070701@unamur.be]
>
> Prof. Marie d'UDEKEM-GEVERS
> Chargée de cours
> Conseillère à la formation
> Professeure invitée au Collège Belgique
>
> Faculté d'Informatique et
> Centre d'Etudes Sciences et PHIlosophie à Namur (ESPHIN)
> Centre de Recherche Information, Droit & Société (CRIDS)
>
> T. +32 (0)81 724 973
> F. +32 (0)81 724 967
> marie.gevers@unamur.be<mailto:marie.gevers@unamur.be>
> http://www.unamur.be/universite/personnes/page_view/01001574/
> http://www.academieroyale.be/cgi?usr=bb58g68qxq&lg=fr&pag=919&tab=111&rec=513&frm=368&par=secorig1018&id=5337&flux=83265846
>
> Université de Namur ASBL
> Rue de Bruxelles 61 - 5000 Namur
> Belgique
>
> Let’s respect the environment together.
> Only print this message if necessary!
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members@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://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members@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://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members@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://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members@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://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

Paul Fishwick, PhD

Chair, ACM SIGSIM

Distinguished University Chair of Arts & Technology

and Professor of Computer Science

Director, Creative Automata Laboratory

The University of Texas at Dallas

Arts & Technology

800 West Campbell Road, AT10

Richardson, TX 75080-3021

Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick

Blog: creative-automata.com
_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members@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://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
-- Dr. Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan Institut für Kulturwissenschaft Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin www.bernardg.com
_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members@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://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

http://maramills.org/