An Overview of the Conceptual Development of Computer Media

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Contents

[edit] Timeline

  • Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
  • George Boole
  • Charles Babbage
  • Herman Hollerith
  • Alan M Turing
  • John von Neumann


  • Vannevar Bush
  • J.C.R. Licklider
  • Robert Taylor
  • Douglas Engelbart
  • Ted Nelson
  • Alan Kay
  • Tim Berners-Lee

[edit] From Leibniz to the electric Behemoths

[edit] Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716)

Bio

Philosopher, jurist, mathematician, logician and diplomat

  • Imagined a device that could add and subtract
  • Vision of an “universal logic machine”
    • Universal symbolic language- characteristica universalis
    • A mathematics of reasoning

Leibniz’s calculating machine

[edit] George Boole

(1815-1864)

Bio

  • mathematician and philosopher.
  • invented Boolean algebra, the basis of all modern computer arithmetic
  • Boole is regarded in hindsight as one of the founders of the field of computer science, although computers did not exist in his day.
  • Boolean algebra - properties and truth tables


[edit] Charles Babbage

(1791-1871) Bio

  • mathematician, analytical philosopher, mechanical engineer and (proto-) computer scientist
  • originated the idea of a programmable computer.
  • designed
    • a difference engine
    • an analytical engine
  • parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum.
  • in 1991, working from Babbage's original plans, a difference engine was completed, and functioned perfectly.;

The analytical engine

[edit] Herman Hollerith

(1860-1929) Bio

  • American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data.
  • he developed a mechanism for reading the presence or absence of holes in the cards
  • He built machines under contract for the US Census Bureau, which used them to tabulate the 1890 census in 2,5 years. (the 1880 census had taken 7 years to complete).
  • He started his own business in 1896 when he founded the Tabulating Machine Company.

Tabulator and sorter box

[edit] Paul Otlet

(1868-1944) Bio

  • author, entrepreneur, visionary, lawyer and peace activist;
  • one of the fathers of information science - "documentation" in his words
  • he created the Universal Decimal Classification
  • Otlet wrote numerous essays on how to collect and organize the world's knowledge, culminating in two books, the Traité de documentation (1934) and Monde: Essai d'universalisme (1935).

Excerpt from the film "The man who wanted to classify the world" By Francoise Levie

[edit] Alan M Turing

(1912-1954)

Bio

  • considered to be the father of modern computer science
  • the Turing test:

a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with two other parties, one a human and the other a machine; if the judge cannot reliably tell which is which, then the machine is said to pass the test

  • techniques for breaking German ciphers
  • the design of Manchester Mark I, one of the first computers ever built

Mark I

The console of Mark I

[edit] John von Neumann

(1903-1957) Bio

  • an Austro-Hungarian mathematician and polymath who made contributions to quantum physics, functional analysis, set theory, economics, computer science, topology, numerical analysis, hydrodynamics (of explosions), statistics and many other mathematical fields as one of world history's outstanding mathematicians.
  • He was a pioneer of :
    • the modern digital computer
    • the application of operator theory to quantum mechanics
    • a member of the Manhattan Project
    • creator of game theory and the concept of cellular automata.
  • Along with Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam, von Neumann worked out key steps in the nuclear physics involved in thermonuclear reactions and the hydrogen bomb.

The Manhattan project


[edit] From tool to medium

[edit] Vannevar Bush

(1890-1974)

[edit] Bio

  • American engineer and science administrator, known for his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and the idea of the memex(in the 1930's)— seen as a pioneering concept for the World Wide Web.
  • The memex: a microfilm-based "device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility."

[edit] J.C.R. Licklider

[edit] J.C.R. Licklider's Bio

(1915-1990)

  • one of the most important figures in computer science and general computing history.
  • three undergraduate degrees (physics, math and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis) and doctorate in psychoacoustics.
  • Early in his career, he became interested in information technology, becoming an innovative and forward-thinking computer scientist.

[edit] J.C.R. Licklider's Contributions

  • Although at one time best known as the father of artificial intelligence, he was also an important figure in conceptualizing modern computer interaction concepts, and his key role in these developments is increasingly being recognized.
  • He is credited with a major part in the development of a view of computers as general tools, rather than simply devices for performing calculations, and with initiating the thinking which led to the modern Internet.
  • He understood the importance of both computers to mass communications and of an informed population to democracy.

[edit] Robert Taylor

[edit] Robert Taylor's Bio

(1931-)

  • trained as an experimental psychologist and mathematician and his earliest career was devoted to brain research and the auditory nervous system.
  • was invited to joined NASA in 1961.
  • director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (1965-69), founder and later manager of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Laboratory (CSL) (1970-83), and founder and manager of Digital Equipment Corporation's Systems Research Center (1983-96).

[edit] Robert Taylor's Contributions

  • Co-authored the seminal paper: "The Computer as a Communication Device," Science and Technology, April 1968 (Together with J.C.R. Licklider)
  • "The Internet is not about technology; it's about communication."
  • "The Internet connects people who have shared interests, ideas and needs, regardless of geography."

An interview with R.Taylor

[edit] Douglas Engelbart

[edit] Doug Engelbart's Bio

(1925 - )

  • American inventor of Norwegian descent;
  • pioneer of human-computer interaction (HCI)
  • a committed and vocal proponent of the development and use of computers and networks to help cope with the world's increasingly more urgent and complex problems

[edit] Doug Engelbart's Contributions

[edit] Theodore Holm Nelson

(1937 - )

  • His motto:

A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds.

[edit] Ted Nelson's Bio

[edit] Ted Nelson's Contributions

  • the computer as a device of radical cultural change
  • the main thrust of his work - to make computers easily accessible to ordinary people.
  • the Xanadu project: a network-based, multiuser version of the memex; a kind of content repository and authoring system;
  • He's also credited for having invented a number of words:hypermedia,transclusion, virtuality, intertwingularity teledildonics.

[edit] Alan Kay

(1940 - )

  • American computer scientist
  • known for his early work on object-oriented programming and user interface design.
  • Teaching at UCLA, Kyoto Univ, MIT,used to be a Senior Fellow at HP Labs.
  • the Dynabook
  • "Personal Dynamic Media" – By Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg
  • short video with A Kay

[edit] Some of Alan Kay’s reflections

  • "The best way to predict the future is to invent it.", 1971
  • Kay elaborated on his theme on other occasions, "The future is not laid out on a track. It is something that we can decide, and to the extent that we do not violate any known laws of the universe, we can probably make it work the way that we want to.", 1984
  • Alan Kay is attributed with saying "Technology is anything that was invented after you were born."
  • It is also believed that Kay had uttered, "I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind."

[edit] Tim Berners-Lee

(1955 - )

  • the inventor of the World Wide Web video with Berners-Lee
  • It all started at CERN ( the famous European Particle physics Laboratory in Geneva)in 1990, when he implemented the first successful communication between an HTTP client and server via the Internet.
  • He wrote a program, called Enquire, which he called a "memory substitute," for his personal use to help him remember connections between various people and projects at the lab
  • founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) at MIT, having as mission to lead the Web to its full potential, ensuring its stability through rapid evolution and revolutionary transformations of its usage.
  • He writes a blog, timbl’s blog

[edit] Illustrated timelines of computers and media

[edit] Readings

  • Introduction. From Logic Machines to the Dynabook: An Overview of the Conceptual Development of Computer Media – Paul A.Mayer, pp. 3-22
  • As We May Think – Vannevar Bush, pp.23-36

[edit] Questions

  • Who was the inventor of the mechanical tabulator based on punched cards ? Why was this contribution important?
  • Who coined the terms “hypertext”, “hypermedia”, “virtuality”?
  • Who is credited as the inventor of the WorldWideWeb? When and where did it happen?
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