Hi all -- The term "giant brains" had also been used numerous times by the Science Service Newsletter editor during the 1930s in terms of earlier mechanical calculators. Ditto to Jim's comments...Bernadette Longo James Cortada wrote:
He popularized the term, although it is not clear to me that he was the first to utter it. The concept had been floating around since at least the mid-1930s in the form of mechanically augmenting thinking. based on what I read in the 1930s and 1940s, I would give him--or his book editor--credit for the phrase. This is similar to the problem we still have with the word automation. It was in use at Ford Motors in the late 1940s but nobody knew about it or used the phrase until John Diebold did when he used it as the title for a best selling book published in the early 1950s. He told me that he had gotten the word from Ford and his editor encouraged him to use in the title of the book. The only really clever book title he ever came up with for his 7+ books. His experience is what taught me to spend a lot of time thinking about the title of any book you publish, fighting and dialoguing with editors, marketing people, and others until you get it right.
Jim (James) W. Cortada IBM Institute for Business Value 3001 West Beltline Highway Madison, WI 53713 USA jwcorta@us.ibm.com 608-270-4462
Inactive hide details for "Evan Koblentz" ---01/31/2009 04:20:10 AM---Was the term "Giant Brains" already popular when Edmund B"Evan Koblentz" ---01/31/2009 04:20:10 AM---Was the term "Giant Brains" already popular when Edmund Berkeley used it in his 1949 book title, or should he get credit for po
From: "Evan Koblentz" <evan@snarc.net>
To: <members@sigcis.org>
Date: 01/31/09 04:20 AM
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Another question - "Giant Brains"
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Was the term "Giant Brains" already popular when Edmund Berkeley used it in his 1949 book title, or should he get credit for popularizing it? I'm mentioning the term in a footnote and want to be sure credit goes to the right source._______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT 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
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_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT 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