Thousands Calling For Apology To Founder Of Computer Science

Gizmodo Australia / BBC ^ | 1 Sept., 2009 | By Joanna Stern

[TomOnTheRun]

Babbage’s analytical engine was 1) not using stored programming. It was gear work for goodness sake. And 2) It wasn’t using a digital computational method. Jacquard was the one who made the loom machine BTW. And the cards aren’t stored programs because they don’t represent decision trees - merely a physical barrier to passing a needle though.

[Nathan Zachary]

Or, In 1939, John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry developed the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) at Iowa State University, which was regarded as the first electronic digital computer. The ABC was built by hand and the design used over 300 Vacuum Tubes and had capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory.

He could also be called the father of computer science, considering this was a true digital computer. The vaccum tube was also "the father of the modern resistor"

[Nathan Zachary]

What made the Analytical Engine unique was that it was designed to be programmed. It was because of this and the fact that it would be more than 100 years that any similar devices would be constructed, Charles Babbage, would be considered by many as the “father of computing”. Because of legal, financial, and political obstacles, the Analytical Machine would never be completed. Charles Babbage was also difficult to work with and alienated the supporters of his work.

[org.whodat]

who is said to be the father of modern computer science,

Straw man statement!!!

[Nathan Zachary]

Here is yet another "father of computer sciences".

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), constructed in the US in 1943, is widely regarded as the first functionally useful electronic general-purpose computer. Influenced by the ABC, it was a turning point in the history of computing and was used to perform ballistics trajectory calculations and used 160 kW of power. World War II is known to be the driving force of computing hardware development and one of such use of computers was in communications encryption and decryption.

[TomOnTheRun]

Sounds more like you don't get it.

The turing test is simply not directly comparable to a monkey and a mirror. The third participant and the human judgement makes it a different bowl of fish entirely.

I've heard that chimps can. But so what?

So... monkeys can, in fact, spot their own reflection as a reflection depending on the species of monkey. Bonobo monkeys not so much - other monkeys.. yes. As can chimps. And gorillas. Don't sell them short. I've met a gorilla with a 1,200 word vocabulary. I'm not sure some of my students have vocabularies that large. *grin*

[devere]

“Code breaking and writing a test for machines doesn’t translate to “father of computer science”.”

Alan M. Turing was in fact one of the primary founders of computer science.

The Association for Computing Machinery since 1966 has awarded the A. M. Turing Award:
“ACM’s most prestigious technical award is accompanied by a prize of $250,000. It is given to an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field.”

http://awards.acm.org/homepage.cfm?srt=all&awd=140

[Nathan Zachary]

So you can see, that this fag was not a ‘father of anything”. The claim is completely absurd.

[Nathan Zachary]

I just posted several examples of much earlier and REAL computer science development.

Sorry, the fairy missed the pier.

[rjsimmon]

Indeed. I postulate that many people had something to do with what we call computer science.

Much to Gore's chagrin, I do not believe one person created the internet, or computer science.

[TomOnTheRun]

Charming. None of the computers you mentioned used stored programming. While electrical they were not digital in the theory or model that he designed. The theory and model that continues to be used to this day.

[Paradox]

I had no clue about this fact. Another episode in “Stupid Historical Mistakes of Western Culture”. I’m so glad we are beyond that.

[Nathan Zachary]

In fact, the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) was the first commercially available, "mass produced" electronic computer manufactured by Remington Rand in the USA and was delivered to the US Census Bureau in June 1951. It used 5,200 vacuum tubes and consumed 125 kW of power. 46 machines were sold at more than $1 million each.

The microprocessor eventually led to the development of the microcomputer, small, low-cost computers that individuals and small businesses could afford. By the 1990s, the microcomputer or Personal Computer (PC) became a common household appliance, and became even more widespread with the advent of the Internet.

This is real computer science, way ahead of the gay guys paperwork.

[TomOnTheRun]

ENIAC could only store 10 digits and this was through one of the few mechanical-electrical aspects of it. Not stored programming, not digital in the modern method we continue to use.

[steve-b]

Obviously, science keeps advancing and replacing old errors.

[Jagman]

I agree. He appears to have played a central role. If not “the” father, then at least a sperm donor! :)

[TomOnTheRun]

This is real computer science, way ahead of the gay guys paperwork.

And the papers that he wrote throughout the 40's? The computational debates with Wittgenstein? Most of this is predicated in his work. Fag or not.

[Lancey Howard]

lol, yeah an apolgy will make this corpse feel better.

[Mojave]

The turing test is simply not directly comparable to a monkey and a mirror

I figured you couldn't explain yourself. Actual sentience does not exist by virtue of an external observer's belief in it, any more than another real monkey exists in the mirror's reflection.

So... monkeys can, in fact, spot their own reflection as a reflection depending on the species of monkey

Again, so what?

[AceMineral]

Vacuum tubes are great for amplification. Not so great for switching. Transistors are great for switching. Not so great for amplification.