When Computers Filled The Room
This module considers how the idea of ‘information’ as a thing distinct from the message emerged, how information became a measure of entropy and thus something that could be computed. This means we’ll have to think about the telephone network(s), business tabulation machines, World War II research into ballistics, codes, and cypers.
Things to Read and Annotate and By When
Add to your calendar:
- Read by November 12:
- Vannevar Bush’s As We May Think.
- Jennifer Light’s When Computers Were Women Technology and Culture 40.3 455-483.
- Then you will select two articles to explore from any of the following:
- any individual chapter in ‘Computing before Computers’
- Bollmer ‘Networks Before The Internet’
- Turing ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’
Key Dates & Topics
Add to your calendar:
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Nov 3: Information Theory
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Nov 5: codes & codebreaking
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Nov 10: Business Machines
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Nov 12: Analogue computers, Digital Computers, Engima, Colossus, Bletchley Park
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Nov 17: The Canadian Internet That Wasn’t
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Nov 19: Précis Note 3