Computers—the machines we think with

COMPUTERS—THE MACHINES WE THINK WITH. _Copyright © 1962, by Daniel S. Halacy, Jr. Printed in the United States of America. All rights in this book are reserved. No part of the b...

The huge amounts of information—books, articles, speeches, and records of all sorts—are beginning to make it absolutely necessary for an efficient information retrieval system....

Unfortunately for Lull, even divine help did not guarantee him success. He was stoned to death by infidels in Bugia, Africa, at the age of eighty-three. All his wheelspinning lo...

Hollerith, a statistician living in Buffalo, New York, may or may not have heard the old saw about statistics being able to support anything—including the statisticians, but the...

Just as there are many jobs for the computer, so there are many kinds of programs. On a very simple, special-purpose computer, the program may be “wired-in,” or fixed, so that t...

The dictionary also gives us a good clue to the digital computer: “Digital.—Of the fingers or digits.” A digital machine deals in digits, or discrete units, in its calculations....

We said that by its nature the analog device tended to be a special-purpose computer. The digital computer, perhaps because its basic operation is so childishly simple, is best...

We are familiar with decimal numbers like 101. This means 1 hundred, no tens, and 1 unit. Likewise in binary notation 101 means one 4, no 2’s, and one 1. For all its seeming com...

A little imagination suggests a logic computer of sorts with one switch, a battery, and a light bulb. Suppose we turn on the switch when we drive into our garage. A light in the...

However the brain accomplishes its job, it is certain that it evolved in its present form as a result of the environment its cells have had to function in for billions of years....

Computers play other games too, from tick-tack-toe and Nim, which it plays flawlessly, to Go and checkers. Dr. Arthur Samuel of IBM has taught the 704 computer to play checkers...

At Picatinny Arsenal, computers evaluate ammunition by simulating as many as a thousand battles per item. Design and management studies for projects like Nike-Zeus and Davy Croc...

The revolution starts this summer at General Electric Company’s new Appliance Park near Louisville, Kentucky. The management planning behind the acquisition of the first UNIVAC...

Present methods of reservations among airlines require from less than a minute for easy bookings to several hours for the tough ones. The AID system uses a dial phone, with dire...

In 1955, Lejaren A. Hiller, Jr., and L. M. Isaacson began to program the ILLIAC computer at the University of Illinois to compose music. The computer actually published its work...

Beyond the automated single- or multipurpose tool is the completely computer-controlled assembly line. Complete automation of products like automobiles may be some distance off,...

To show the awareness of the publishers of texts and other educational material, firms like Book of Knowledge, Encyclopedia Britannica Films, and TMI Grolier are in the “teachin...

Difficult as the task seems, workers in the field are optimistic and feel that it will be feasible to translate all languages, even the Oriental, which seem to present the great...

In 1960 the Western Joint Computer Conference was held in San Francisco, and one session was devoted to the fanciful design and use of a computer with the problem-solving capabi...

Arthur C. Clarke is most articulate in describing what he calls the evolutionary cycle from man to machine. As the discovery of tools by pre-man created man, so man’s invention...

Teaching machines, 6, 100, 222, 225 AutoTutor, 213, 225 CLASS, 226, 227, 228 DIDAK, 224 Digiflex, 225 PLATO, 226 Pressey, S., 222 Skinner, B. F., 133, 223, 230 Videosonic, 222