Lecture 2.md (2910B)
1 +++ 2 title = "Lecture 2" 3 +++ 4 # Lecture 2 5 6 After WW2, people started putting faith in machines that didn’t work, and they made them work. 7 8 The need for scientific calculations exploded. 9 10 ## Cold war science 11 In the US: 12 13 - During WW2, Manhattan project was successful in new nuclear/medical applications that could develop further after the war 14 - worldwide computer power dick measuring contest — who has the bigger, more powerful computer? 15 - Vannevar Bush was aware and started with the ENIAC during the war, but it wasn’t done till like 1945 16 - hand-in-hand with space race — NASA 17 - another measuring contest — Atomic power 18 19 Continental EU: 20 21 - mood was a mix of fatalism and optimism, scientists felt like science could offer a lot 22 - in late 1940s — rebuilding the nation and economy (Marshall plan) 23 - Mathematisch Centrum (1946) would help to rebuild the Netherlands 24 - people started realising that computers really *are *important 25 - Hans Freudenthal — "Rekenmachines winnen den oorlog” 26 - JJSS — “Le Defi Americain” (The American Challenge) 27 - needed for stuff like aeronautical calculations, code breaking (Bletchley Park), radar 28 29 Dinosaurs (some of the first computers) 30 31 - US 32 - “Manchester Baby” in Manchester, 1948 33 - “EDSAC” in Cambridge, 1949, Maurice Wilkes 34 - EU 35 - in the EU, none of the computer innovations originated in the administrative tradition, it was all scientific 36 - Amsterdam 37 - mostly Mathematisch Centrum: Aad van Wijngaarden, Jan van der Corput 38 - ARRA (1952), ARRA II (1954), ARMAC (1956), Electrologica X1 39 - Delft 40 - Willem van der Poel — built ARCO/Testudo 41 - others were ZERO, PTERA, ZEBRA, STANTEC 42 - Eindhoven 43 - Wim Nijenhuis built PETER for acoustic measurement, to improve music industry 44 - following were NATLAB, PASCAL, STEVIN 45 - all of these used components like relays, vacuum tubes, etc. they were often unreliable, and had poorly soldered connections. 46 47 For the public — this was the Golden Age of Science Fiction! 48 49 - most people never actually saw a computer, yet were still putting money in 50 - the ideas had to be sold to the public, otherwise they’d protest 51 - Dystopian literature in Europe 52 - themes were totalitarianism, nationalism, surveillance, censorship 53 - Examples: 54 - Literature: 55 - Isaac Asimov — "I, Robot”, “Foundation” 56 - Aldous Huxley — "Brave New World" 57 - George Orwell — “1984" (this was huuuge and still is) 58 - Robert Heinlein — "Starship Troopers", "Stranger in a Strange Land" 59 - Arthur C. Clarke — “Interplanetary Flight”, “Childhood’s End”, “Rama”, “2001" (fantastic book and film, directed by Stanley Kubrick) 60 - Philip K. Dick — “What makes us human?” 61 - Films: 62 - Metropolis 63 - Desk Set (1957) 64 - Forbidden Planet (1956)