Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet?
I got an odd letter recently from someone named Raymond Dudley, who claims he invented a chess-playing computer in 1973. Apparently he thought that as a member of the SHOT Editorial Committee, I was in a position to "correct the historical record" by alerting the "scientific establishment" of this "important breakthrough." He has a website at http://www.chessilluminated.com/ The device is an electronic chessboard hooked up to a minicomputer. The "digital spreadsheet" he refers to is the illuminated chessboard and a corresponding program that keeps track of the state of each cell on the board. Supposedly the program is implemented in parallel, though I think the underlying processor is not. The chess pieces are electronically encocded so that when they are placed on the board, the machine recognizes each unique piece. The squares on the board will light up to indicate which moves a given piece can legally make; the pieces themselves light up to warn when they are in danger of being captured. It's not clear to me from my brief survey of the site whether the machine actually plays against the human player or simply provides the player with useful information to aid them in playing against another person. Dudley got a patent on the machine in 1983. Anybody heard of this? He seems to have kept a lower profile than some of our other cranks--er, unsung inventors. A google search for "Raymond Dudley chess computer" only turned up his patent information. Janet Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS
As we saw with a certain other neglected genius inventor and website builder, there's a difference between creating a particular system and inventing a technology. I do recall from when I was growing up the appearance of "chess computers" in which a microprocessor was built into a chess board and the system would sense moves made by humans and respond to them. As graphics got better and people became more use to looking at screens they seem to have faded away again. According to Wikipedia, the "Chess Challenger" line was sold from in 1977 onwards, so Dudley's claimed date certainly predates commercial availability of these devices. So if Dudley did what Janet describes in 1973 (and a skimming his rather confusing website I did not see a clear statement of what was novel or what worked when) he might well have had the first computerized chess board. Computer chess programs, of course, go well back before 1973. So the novel thing would be using a physical chess board as the user interface. 1973 would be a few years too early to build the computer into the chess board, so it makes sense that the idea might surface first with an external minicomputer driving it. Inventing the "parallel processor" and "electronic spreadsheet" not so much. Parallel processing goes back to ENIAC, the SSEC, etc. and is older than serial processing. Maintaining a matrix in memory goes back to the very earliest digital computing applications. One of his animated clippings with the heading "Program Power" quote a Science report on a famous Bell Labs parallel chess computer called Belle. Bell does have a Wikipedia page, which does not mention Dudley as an inventor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_(chess_machine). As the site consists mostly of scanned pages with no linking narrative it's not clear what this is supposed to have to do with Dudley. Likewise a clipping on the bankruptcy of Thinking Machines. So it's not clear what he is trying to prove by collecting these clippings and arranging them as "chapters" in a "book" that begins with his own chess board. It reminds me of a fascinating infographic timeline on the history of email. Tom -----Original Message----- From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Janet Abbate Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 10:23 AM To: Sigcis Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet? I got an odd letter recently from someone named Raymond Dudley, who claims he invented a chess-playing computer in 1973. Apparently he thought that as a member of the SHOT Editorial Committee, I was in a position to "correct the historical record" by alerting the "scientific establishment" of this "important breakthrough." He has a website at http://www.chessilluminated.com/ The device is an electronic chessboard hooked up to a minicomputer. The "digital spreadsheet" he refers to is the illuminated chessboard and a corresponding program that keeps track of the state of each cell on the board. Supposedly the program is implemented in parallel, though I think the underlying processor is not. The chess pieces are electronically encocded so that when they are placed on the board, the machine recognizes each unique piece. The squares on the board will light up to indicate which moves a given piece can legally make; the pieces themselves light up to warn when they are in danger of being captured. It's not clear to me from my brief survey of the site whether the machine actually plays against the human player or simply provides the player with useful information to aid them in playing against another person. Dudley got a patent on the machine in 1983. Anybody heard of this? He seems to have kept a lower profile than some of our other cranks--er, unsung inventors. A google search for "Raymond Dudley chess computer" only turned up his patent information. Janet Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS _______________________________________________ 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
I read the patent, and did a brief investigation of the registry of the domain chessilluminated.com. As far as I can tell, the invention does not actually play chess. Through the lights that Janet mentions, it helps each player visualize where each piece can move and when a piece is in jeopardy. The implementation is apparently “hardwired” combinational (stateless) digital logic: some 1500 TTL chips, and lots of wire. So I wouldn’t call this a computer. The person who registered the domain chessilluminated.com is named Lainey Smith. She ran an unsuccessful ($260 raised toward a goal of $150000) Kickstarter campaign last year with the goal of producing updated prototypes of the invention: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2131586485/interactive-art-0?ref=city The proposal quotes an unnamed university researcher as expressing interest in an modernized version of the gadget for use in experiments as a possible treatment for visually-oriented individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Paul McJones
On Apr 21, 2015, at 10:41 AM, Thomas Haigh <thaigh@computer.org> wrote:
As we saw with a certain other neglected genius inventor and website builder, there's a difference between creating a particular system and inventing a technology.
I do recall from when I was growing up the appearance of "chess computers" in which a microprocessor was built into a chess board and the system would sense moves made by humans and respond to them. As graphics got better and people became more use to looking at screens they seem to have faded away again. According to Wikipedia, the "Chess Challenger" line was sold from in 1977 onwards, so Dudley's claimed date certainly predates commercial availability of these devices.
So if Dudley did what Janet describes in 1973 (and a skimming his rather confusing website I did not see a clear statement of what was novel or what worked when) he might well have had the first computerized chess board. Computer chess programs, of course, go well back before 1973. So the novel thing would be using a physical chess board as the user interface. 1973 would be a few years too early to build the computer into the chess board, so it makes sense that the idea might surface first with an external minicomputer driving it.
Inventing the "parallel processor" and "electronic spreadsheet" not so much. Parallel processing goes back to ENIAC, the SSEC, etc. and is older than serial processing. Maintaining a matrix in memory goes back to the very earliest digital computing applications.
One of his animated clippings with the heading "Program Power" quote a Science report on a famous Bell Labs parallel chess computer called Belle. Bell does have a Wikipedia page, which does not mention Dudley as an inventor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_(chess_machine). As the site consists mostly of scanned pages with no linking narrative it's not clear what this is supposed to have to do with Dudley. Likewise a clipping on the bankruptcy of Thinking Machines. So it's not clear what he is trying to prove by collecting these clippings and arranging them as "chapters" in a "book" that begins with his own chess board. It reminds me of a fascinating infographic timeline on the history of email.
Tom
-----Original Message----- From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Janet Abbate Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 10:23 AM To: Sigcis Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet?
I got an odd letter recently from someone named Raymond Dudley, who claims he invented a chess-playing computer in 1973. Apparently he thought that as a member of the SHOT Editorial Committee, I was in a position to "correct the historical record" by alerting the "scientific establishment" of this "important breakthrough." He has a website at http://www.chessilluminated.com/
The device is an electronic chessboard hooked up to a minicomputer. The "digital spreadsheet" he refers to is the illuminated chessboard and a corresponding program that keeps track of the state of each cell on the board. Supposedly the program is implemented in parallel, though I think the underlying processor is not. The chess pieces are electronically encocded so that when they are placed on the board, the machine recognizes each unique piece. The squares on the board will light up to indicate which moves a given piece can legally make; the pieces themselves light up to warn when they are in danger of being captured. It's not clear to me from my brief survey of the site whether the machine actually plays against the human player or simply provides the player with useful information to aid them in playing against another person. Dudley got a patent on the machine in 1983.
Anybody heard of this? He seems to have kept a lower profile than some of our other cranks--er, unsung inventors. A google search for "Raymond Dudley chess computer" only turned up his patent information.
Janet
Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS
_______________________________________________ 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
_______________________________________________ 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
Parallel processing goes back to ENIAC, the SSEC, etc. and is older than serial processing.
Not to mention the parallel processing of human computers; e.g. Prony's computation of the Tables du Cadastre and the WPA's Mathematical Tables Project. Cheers, Scott
Hi Tom and Janet (and others), I also received a set of docuements from Raymond Dudley by registered post today. He has pretty much said the same things that he wrote to Janet. He has also enclosed some pictures and a 'timeline' from his website. His letter is attached as a PDF file. His invention looks like an electronic chess board, with lighted directions for possible movement of the pieces, as you have already noted. He wants 'recognition for this important breakthrough.' But it is unclear what he wants recognition for - the inventor of the parallel processor, or the digital spread sheet, or the chess computer. He claims that the chess computer/mechanism itself is a demonstration machine (presumably demonstrating the parallel processing operating system. More importantly, he has directed this letter to me as "Communications Officer of SIGCIS". So I am trying to figure out what I should do with this: Ignore/Respond (if so, what should the response be?) Your thoughts will be appreciated! Regards, -Ramesh --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Phone: 203-582-5276 Email:rameshs@quinnipiac.edu Web: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/about/directory/faculty-detail/?Dept=16&Person=23345 & Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm ________________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of Thomas Haigh [thaigh@computer.org] Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:41 PM To: 'Janet Abbate'; 'Sigcis' Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet? As we saw with a certain other neglected genius inventor and website builder, there's a difference between creating a particular system and inventing a technology. I do recall from when I was growing up the appearance of "chess computers" in which a microprocessor was built into a chess board and the system would sense moves made by humans and respond to them. As graphics got better and people became more use to looking at screens they seem to have faded away again. According to Wikipedia, the "Chess Challenger" line was sold from in 1977 onwards, so Dudley's claimed date certainly predates commercial availability of these devices. So if Dudley did what Janet describes in 1973 (and a skimming his rather confusing website I did not see a clear statement of what was novel or what worked when) he might well have had the first computerized chess board. Computer chess programs, of course, go well back before 1973. So the novel thing would be using a physical chess board as the user interface. 1973 would be a few years too early to build the computer into the chess board, so it makes sense that the idea might surface first with an external minicomputer driving it. Inventing the "parallel processor" and "electronic spreadsheet" not so much. Parallel processing goes back to ENIAC, the SSEC, etc. and is older than serial processing. Maintaining a matrix in memory goes back to the very earliest digital computing applications. One of his animated clippings with the heading "Program Power" quote a Science report on a famous Bell Labs parallel chess computer called Belle. Bell does have a Wikipedia page, which does not mention Dudley as an inventor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_(chess_machine). As the site consists mostly of scanned pages with no linking narrative it's not clear what this is supposed to have to do with Dudley. Likewise a clipping on the bankruptcy of Thinking Machines. So it's not clear what he is trying to prove by collecting these clippings and arranging them as "chapters" in a "book" that begins with his own chess board. It reminds me of a fascinating infographic timeline on the history of email. Tom -----Original Message----- From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Janet Abbate Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 10:23 AM To: Sigcis Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet? I got an odd letter recently from someone named Raymond Dudley, who claims he invented a chess-playing computer in 1973. Apparently he thought that as a member of the SHOT Editorial Committee, I was in a position to "correct the historical record" by alerting the "scientific establishment" of this "important breakthrough." He has a website at http://www.chessilluminated.com/ The device is an electronic chessboard hooked up to a minicomputer. The "digital spreadsheet" he refers to is the illuminated chessboard and a corresponding program that keeps track of the state of each cell on the board. Supposedly the program is implemented in parallel, though I think the underlying processor is not. The chess pieces are electronically encocded so that when they are placed on the board, the machine recognizes each unique piece. The squares on the board will light up to indicate which moves a given piece can legally make; the pieces themselves light up to warn when they are in danger of being captured. It's not clear to me from my brief survey of the site whether the machine actually plays against the human player or simply provides the player with useful information to aid them in playing against another person. Dudley got a patent on the machine in 1983. Anybody heard of this? He seems to have kept a lower profile than some of our other cranks--er, unsung inventors. A google search for "Raymond Dudley chess computer" only turned up his patent information. Janet Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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
Respond as an individual scholar. However, on a related matter, when you are done with the materials, could you donate a copy of whatever he sent you to the Babbage so that future historians can have access to it? Jim On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 1:44 PM, Subramanian, Ramesh Prof. < Ramesh.Subramanian@quinnipiac.edu> wrote:
Hi Tom and Janet (and others), I also received a set of docuements from Raymond Dudley by registered post today. He has pretty much said the same things that he wrote to Janet. He has also enclosed some pictures and a 'timeline' from his website. His letter is attached as a PDF file.
His invention looks like an electronic chess board, with lighted directions for possible movement of the pieces, as you have already noted. He wants 'recognition for this important breakthrough.' But it is unclear what he wants recognition for - the inventor of the parallel processor, or the digital spread sheet, or the chess computer. He claims that the chess computer/mechanism itself is a demonstration machine (presumably demonstrating the parallel processing operating system.
More importantly, he has directed this letter to me as "Communications Officer of SIGCIS". So I am trying to figure out what I should do with this: Ignore/Respond (if so, what should the response be?)
Your thoughts will be appreciated!
Regards, -Ramesh
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Phone: 203-582-5276 Email:rameshs@quinnipiac.edu Web: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/about/directory/faculty-detail/?Dept=16&Person=23345 & Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm
________________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of Thomas Haigh [thaigh@computer.org] Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:41 PM To: 'Janet Abbate'; 'Sigcis' Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet?
As we saw with a certain other neglected genius inventor and website builder, there's a difference between creating a particular system and inventing a technology.
I do recall from when I was growing up the appearance of "chess computers" in which a microprocessor was built into a chess board and the system would sense moves made by humans and respond to them. As graphics got better and people became more use to looking at screens they seem to have faded away again. According to Wikipedia, the "Chess Challenger" line was sold from in 1977 onwards, so Dudley's claimed date certainly predates commercial availability of these devices.
So if Dudley did what Janet describes in 1973 (and a skimming his rather confusing website I did not see a clear statement of what was novel or what worked when) he might well have had the first computerized chess board. Computer chess programs, of course, go well back before 1973. So the novel thing would be using a physical chess board as the user interface. 1973 would be a few years too early to build the computer into the chess board, so it makes sense that the idea might surface first with an external minicomputer driving it.
Inventing the "parallel processor" and "electronic spreadsheet" not so much. Parallel processing goes back to ENIAC, the SSEC, etc. and is older than serial processing. Maintaining a matrix in memory goes back to the very earliest digital computing applications.
One of his animated clippings with the heading "Program Power" quote a Science report on a famous Bell Labs parallel chess computer called Belle. Bell does have a Wikipedia page, which does not mention Dudley as an inventor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_(chess_machine). As the site consists mostly of scanned pages with no linking narrative it's not clear what this is supposed to have to do with Dudley. Likewise a clipping on the bankruptcy of Thinking Machines. So it's not clear what he is trying to prove by collecting these clippings and arranging them as "chapters" in a "book" that begins with his own chess board. It reminds me of a fascinating infographic timeline on the history of email.
Tom
-----Original Message----- From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Janet Abbate Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 10:23 AM To: Sigcis Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet?
I got an odd letter recently from someone named Raymond Dudley, who claims he invented a chess-playing computer in 1973. Apparently he thought that as a member of the SHOT Editorial Committee, I was in a position to "correct the historical record" by alerting the "scientific establishment" of this "important breakthrough." He has a website at http://www.chessilluminated.com/
The device is an electronic chessboard hooked up to a minicomputer. The "digital spreadsheet" he refers to is the illuminated chessboard and a corresponding program that keeps track of the state of each cell on the board. Supposedly the program is implemented in parallel, though I think the underlying processor is not. The chess pieces are electronically encocded so that when they are placed on the board, the machine recognizes each unique piece. The squares on the board will light up to indicate which moves a given piece can legally make; the pieces themselves light up to warn when they are in danger of being captured. It's not clear to me from my brief survey of the site whether the machine actually plays against the human player or simply provides the player with useful information to aid them in playing against another person. Dudley got a patent on the machine in 1983.
Anybody heard of this? He seems to have kept a lower profile than some of our other cranks--er, unsung inventors. A google search for "Raymond Dudley chess computer" only turned up his patent information.
Janet
Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS
_______________________________________________ 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
_______________________________________________ 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
_______________________________________________ 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
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382
He says he started the patent process in 1973. This is after several parallel processing systems were developed. It's also after the statistical package Minitab, which manages and operates on data as matrices or collections of vectors, was developed. (One might argue that Minitab was a spreadsheet, after a fashion. There's also APL to consider.) Not sure what to suggest. Maybe ask for clarification about what he's asking credit for? Bill ________________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of Subramanian, Ramesh Prof. [Ramesh.Subramanian@quinnipiac.edu] Sent: Monday, May 18, 2015 2:44 PM To: thaigh@computer.org; 'Janet Abbate'; 'Sigcis' Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet? Hi Tom and Janet (and others), I also received a set of docuements from Raymond Dudley by registered post today. He has pretty much said the same things that he wrote to Janet. He has also enclosed some pictures and a 'timeline' from his website. His letter is attached as a PDF file. His invention looks like an electronic chess board, with lighted directions for possible movement of the pieces, as you have already noted. He wants 'recognition for this important breakthrough.' But it is unclear what he wants recognition for - the inventor of the parallel processor, or the digital spread sheet, or the chess computer. He claims that the chess computer/mechanism itself is a demonstration machine (presumably demonstrating the parallel processing operating system. More importantly, he has directed this letter to me as "Communications Officer of SIGCIS". So I am trying to figure out what I should do with this: Ignore/Respond (if so, what should the response be?) Your thoughts will be appreciated! Regards, -Ramesh --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Phone: 203-582-5276 Email:rameshs@quinnipiac.edu Web: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/about/directory/faculty-detail/?Dept=16&Person=23345 & Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm ________________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of Thomas Haigh [thaigh@computer.org] Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 1:41 PM To: 'Janet Abbate'; 'Sigcis' Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet? As we saw with a certain other neglected genius inventor and website builder, there's a difference between creating a particular system and inventing a technology. I do recall from when I was growing up the appearance of "chess computers" in which a microprocessor was built into a chess board and the system would sense moves made by humans and respond to them. As graphics got better and people became more use to looking at screens they seem to have faded away again. According to Wikipedia, the "Chess Challenger" line was sold from in 1977 onwards, so Dudley's claimed date certainly predates commercial availability of these devices. So if Dudley did what Janet describes in 1973 (and a skimming his rather confusing website I did not see a clear statement of what was novel or what worked when) he might well have had the first computerized chess board. Computer chess programs, of course, go well back before 1973. So the novel thing would be using a physical chess board as the user interface. 1973 would be a few years too early to build the computer into the chess board, so it makes sense that the idea might surface first with an external minicomputer driving it. Inventing the "parallel processor" and "electronic spreadsheet" not so much. Parallel processing goes back to ENIAC, the SSEC, etc. and is older than serial processing. Maintaining a matrix in memory goes back to the very earliest digital computing applications. One of his animated clippings with the heading "Program Power" quote a Science report on a famous Bell Labs parallel chess computer called Belle. Bell does have a Wikipedia page, which does not mention Dudley as an inventor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_(chess_machine). As the site consists mostly of scanned pages with no linking narrative it's not clear what this is supposed to have to do with Dudley. Likewise a clipping on the bankruptcy of Thinking Machines. So it's not clear what he is trying to prove by collecting these clippings and arranging them as "chapters" in a "book" that begins with his own chess board. It reminds me of a fascinating infographic timeline on the history of email. Tom -----Original Message----- From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Janet Abbate Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 10:23 AM To: Sigcis Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Raymond Dudley, unsung inventor of parallel processing and digital spreadsheet? I got an odd letter recently from someone named Raymond Dudley, who claims he invented a chess-playing computer in 1973. Apparently he thought that as a member of the SHOT Editorial Committee, I was in a position to "correct the historical record" by alerting the "scientific establishment" of this "important breakthrough." He has a website at http://www.chessilluminated.com/ The device is an electronic chessboard hooked up to a minicomputer. The "digital spreadsheet" he refers to is the illuminated chessboard and a corresponding program that keeps track of the state of each cell on the board. Supposedly the program is implemented in parallel, though I think the underlying processor is not. The chess pieces are electronically encocded so that when they are placed on the board, the machine recognizes each unique piece. The squares on the board will light up to indicate which moves a given piece can legally make; the pieces themselves light up to warn when they are in danger of being captured. It's not clear to me from my brief survey of the site whether the machine actually plays against the human player or simply provides the player with useful information to aid them in playing against another person. Dudley got a patent on the machine in 1983. Anybody heard of this? He seems to have kept a lower profile than some of our other cranks--er, unsung inventors. A google search for "Raymond Dudley chess computer" only turned up his patent information. Janet Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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
participants (7)
-
James Cortada -
Janet Abbate -
McMillan, William W -
Paul McJones -
Scott Guthery -
Subramanian, Ramesh Prof. -
Thomas Haigh