Wednesday March 16, 2005
Wednesday March 16, 2005 ETech 05, George Dyson and Von Neumann's Universe
I doubt George Dyson will post slides from his Von Neumann's Universe talk at ETech yesterday, since hopefully he's working on a book along the same vein, but if he did post the slides, they would both fascinate you and make you laugh. The audience was in stitches as George took us through a real and comical history of the creation of modern computers.
My grandfather was a huge history buff and knew a lot about the history of New Hampshire. He acquired old artifacts as well - maps, books, state supreme court benches, all things historical. I didn't get it and always wondered what intrigued him so much. And yet somehow, even to a non-historian like me, George, armed with an extensive collection of historical notebooks and maps and pictures, made the history of computing come alive yesterday.
Others have already blogged on the Dyson talk here and also on BoingBoing. Danese got it right in her New DivaBlog when she encouraged folks to GO hear George Dyson talk if they get the chance. It's well worth it.
My favorite part were the many photos of the research notebooks, with the all caps and emphatic hand-written notes saying things like:
"I CAN BE AS STUBBORN AS THIS THING!"
and:
"I have now duplicated both results. How will I know which is right? ...Assuming one is in fact correct?"
Also amusing was the correspondence complaining about how much sugar and tea the engineers/scientists consumed (sugar was rationed during the war) complete with suggestion that they should take their tea in a different building so they could be properly supervised at tea-time!
Technorati Tag: etech
(2005-03-16 15:45:02.0) Permalink
