Dear Paul: Please note that Leibniz did not invent the binary system: The Binary System Was Created Long Before Leibniz | blog@CACM | Communications of the ACM October 10, 2017 Best wishes, Herbert ----Ursprüngliche Nachricht---- Von : brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com Datum : 21/03/2022 - 02:21 (MN) An : CeruzziP@si.edu, members@sigcis.org Betreff : Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Play about Ada and Babbage Paul,
One question I have for the SIG: Babbage obviously knew of Leibniz's work, but was he familiar with Leibniz's writing on what we now call binary arithmetic? If so, what did Babbage think of it?
I can't answer that, but I did look at writings by Turing (1945-6), Booth & Booth (1953) and Bowden (1953). They all made it clear that using binary was the obvious practical choice for electronic computation, and didn't really deem it worthy of discussion. Von Neumann (1945) gave a very florid explanation of the same practical choice. None of them bothered to mention Leibniz. Clearly it was *not* a practical choice for Babbage, because... cog wheels. I don't know what the optimum engineering choice is for a cog wheel based device, but it clearly isn't base 2. Regards Brian Carpenter On 21-Mar-22 11:07, Ceruzzi, Paul wrote:
I got a chance to see the play this weekend. (The run ends next week.) I really enjoyed it. I am not a theater critic, so I will leave it at that. It has some artistic license, of course, but none of the howlers that ruined "The Imitation Game," thank goodness. I hope it can be staged elsewhere.
One question I have for the SIG: Babbage obviously knew of Leibniz's work, but was he familiar with Leibniz's writing on what we now call binary arithmetic? If so, what did Babbage think of it? I mention this because binary comes up in the play in several interesting scenes.
Paul Ceruzzi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *From:* Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> *Sent:* Monday, March 14, 2022 9:50 AM *To:* members@SIGCIS.org <members@sigcis.org> *Subject:* [SIGCIS-Members] Play about Ada and Babbage
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This message is a little late, and it may appeal only to those of you in the DC area, although I believe the play will be staged in other cities. I haven't seen it yet but plan to next week. A play about Ada Augusta and Charles Babbage:
https://avantbard.org/project/ada-and-the-engine/ <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favantbard.org%2Fproject%2Fada-and-the-engine%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cceruzzip%40si.edu%7C6cc2df1f36804975f52508da05c1aa58%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637828627194203039%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=wM8aOK%2BM%2FlBnHnLbECzcuunkob1eH0rgbUVeRbGR914%3D&reserved=0> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Favantbard.org%2Fproject%2Fada-and-the-engine%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cceruzzip%40si.edu%7C6cc2df1f36804975f52508da05c1aa58%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637828627194203039%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=wM8aOK%2BM%2FlBnHnLbECzcuunkob1eH0rgbUVeRbGR914%3D&reserved=0>
From prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson, Ada and the Engine is a whimsical scientific history sure to delight audiences. avantbard.org
Paul Ceruzzi
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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 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