Robots again

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Wed Mar 18 13:07:33 1998

On Wed, 18 Mar 1998, Sam Ismail wrote:

> Hey! A perfect analogy to this mailing list. Who would've guessed this
> discussion of AI is relevant after all!
>
> Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass

Surely you, a self-proclaimed computer historian, can see the relevancy of
this thread.

First, what computer is more classic than the brain :-)

And what is it that makes a machine interesting from a historical
perspective?

For me, a rank amateur and newby collector, it's finding/discussing
machines that represent a fork in the evolutionary road. I'm interested
in the evolution of processor architecure, system architecture, OS
architecture, and form factor.

Perhaps a real computer historian can chime in here, but I vaguely recall
that there was considerable experimentation and debate early in the
development of electronic computers along the lines of analog vs. digital,
von neumann vs non-von, analogies to electronic brains, etc.

Today, we're sitting at a local minima in computer design, and it seems
very few people think of computers as anything but simple fast scalar von
neumann machines. We know that's not how the brain works, so it's
interesting to look at machine architectures that tried to emulate the
brain (at least a little bit).

It's also reasonable to ask if "analogness" might enable any problem
solving abilities that "digitalness" can't handle. I think the results of
Turing's work on computability is important for any wanna-be computer
architectect if for no other reason than these results allow you to safely
ignore the possibility that, analog machines, for example, might possess
some hidden capability that digital machines don't.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program of VMS backup tape
storage....

-- Doug
Received on Wed Mar 18 1998 - 13:07:33 GMT

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