Giant Brains Or Machines That Think

About this eBook

Author

Berkeley, Edmund Callis, 1909-1988

Title

Giant brains; or, Machines that think

Original Publication

United States: John Wiley & Sons,1949.

Credits

Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)

Language

English

LoC Class

QA: Science: Mathematics

Subject

Computers -- Popular works

Category

Text

Project Gutenberg

eBook-No. 68991

Release Date

September 14, 2022

Copyright

Public domain in the USA.

Contents

1. 1.GIANT BRAINS OR MACHINES THAT THINK
2. 2.PREFACE The Subject, Purpose, and Method of this Book — READING THIS BOOK — UNDERSTANDING THIS BOOK — BASIC FACTS
3. 3.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
4. 4.CONTENTS
5. 5.Chapter 1 CAN MACHINES THINK? WHAT IS A MECHANICAL BRAIN? — HUMAN THINKING — NERVES AND THEIR PROPERTIES — BEHAVIOR THAT IS THINKING — THE DEFINITION OF A MECHANICAL BRAIN — THE KINDS OF THINKING A MECHANICAL BRAIN CAN DO — WHY ARE THESE GIANT BRAINS IMPORTANT?
6. 6.Chapter 2 LANGUAGES: SYSTEMS FOR HANDLING INFORMATION — LANGUAGES — SCHEMES FOR EXPRESSING MEANINGS — QUANTITY OF INFORMATION — PHYSICAL EQUIPMENT FOR HANDLING INFORMATION — LANGUAGES OF PHYSICAL OBJECTS — THE CRUCIAL DEVICES FOR MECHANICAL BRAINS
7. 7.Chapter 3 A MACHINE THAT WILL THINK: THE DESIGN OF A VERY SIMPLE MECHANICAL BRAIN — SIMON, THE VERY SIMPLE MECHANICAL BRAIN — SIMON’S FLESH AND NERVES— REPRESENTING INFORMATION — SIMON’S MENTALITY—POSSIBLE RANGE OF INFORMATION — SIMON’S MEMORY— STORING INFORMATION — THE CONTROL OF SIMON — THE USEFULNESS OF SIMON — SIMON’S THINKING— TRANSFERRING INFORMATION — SIMON’S COMPUTING AND REASONING — PUTTING SIMON TOGETHER
8. 8.Chapter 4 COUNTING HOLES: PUNCH-CARD CALCULATING MACHINES — ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT — GENERAL PRINCIPLES — TYPES OF PUNCH-CARD MACHINES — Key Punch — Verifier — Sorter — Interpreter — Reproducer — Collator — Calculating Punch — Tabulator — HANDLING INFORMATION — ARITHMETICAL OPERATIONS — Counting — Adding and Subtracting — Multiplying and Dividing — Rounding Off — LOGICAL OPERATIONS — Translating — Comparing — Selecting — Digit Selector — Sequencer — NEW DEVELOPMENTS — SPEED — COST — RELIABILITY — GENERAL USEFULNESS
9. 9.Chapter 5 MEASURING: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY’S DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER NO. 2 — ANALOGUE MACHINES — PHYSICAL QUANTITIES — DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER — DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS — PHYSICAL PROBLEMS — SOLVING PHYSICAL PROBLEMS — ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER — GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF MIT DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER NO. 2 — Adders — Integrators — Function Tables — INSTRUCTING THE MIT DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER NO. 2 — ANSWERS — HOW THE DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER CALCULATES — AN APPRAISAL OF THE MACHINE
10. 10.Chapter 6 ACCURACY TO 23 DIGITS: HARVARD’S IBM AUTOMATIC SEQUENCE-CONTROLLED CALCULATOR — ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT — GENERAL ORGANIZATION — PHYSICAL DEVICES — Switches — Relays — Timing Contacts — NUMBERS — HOW INFORMATION GOES INTO THE MACHINE — HOW INFORMATION COMES OUT OF THE MACHINE — HOW INFORMATION IS HANDLED IN THE MACHINE — Sequence of Steps — Transferring, Adding, and Clearing — Subtracting — Multiplying — Dividing — Consulting a Table — Selecting — Checking — Other Operations — RAPID APPROXIMATION FOR A LOGARITHM — AN APPRAISAL OF THE CALCULATOR — Speed — Cost and Value — Reliability — Efficiency
11. 11.Chapter 7 SPEED—5000 ADDITIONS A SECOND: MOORE SCHOOL’S ENIAC ELECTRONIC NUMERICAL INTEGRATOR AND CALCULATOR — ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT — GENERAL ORGANIZATION — Panels — Parts — Numbers — HOW INFORMATION GOES INTO THE MACHINE — HOW INFORMATION COMES OUT OF THE MACHINE — HOW INFORMATION IS MANIPULATED IN THE MACHINE — Transferring Numbers, Adding, and Subtracting — Multiplying and Dividing — Consulting a Table — Programming — AN APPRAISAL OF ENIAC AS A COMPUTER — Speed — Ease of Programming — Memory — Reliability — Cost
12. 12.Chapter 8 RELIABILITY—NO WRONG RESULTS: BELL LABORATORIES’ GENERAL-PURPOSE RELAY CALCULATOR — ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT — The Complex Computer — Special-Purpose Computers — ORGANIZATION OF THE GENERAL-PURPOSE COMPUTER — Physical Units — Numbers — HOW INFORMATION GOES INTO THE MACHINE — The Processor — The Problem Positions — HOW INFORMATION COMES OUT OF THE MACHINE — HOW INFORMATION IS MANIPULATED IN THE MACHINE — Storing — Addition and Subtraction — Multiplication and Division — Discrimination — PROBLEMS — AN APPRAISAL OF THE CALCULATOR — Reliability — Time Required — Staff — Maintenance — Cost
13. 13.Chapter 9 REASONING: THE KALIN-BURKHART LOGICAL-TRUTH CALCULATOR — TRUTH — LOGICAL TRUTH — LOGICAL PATTERNS — THE SIMPLEST LOGICAL PATTERNS — CALCULATION OF LOGICAL TRUTH — LOGICAL-TRUTH CALCULATION BY EXAMINING CASES AND REASONING — LOGICAL-TRUTH CALCULATION BY ALGEBRA — CALCULATION OF CIRCUITS BY THE ALGEBRA OF LOGIC — LOGICAL-TRUTH CALCULATION BY MACHINE — CONSTRUCTION AND COMPLETION OF THE KALIN-BURKHART LOGICAL-TRUTH CALCULATOR — GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF THE MACHINE — UNITS OF THE MACHINE — HOW INFORMATION GOES INTO THE MACHINE — HOW INFORMATION COMES OUT OF THE MACHINE — A COMPLETE AND CONCRETE EXAMPLE — AN APPRAISAL OF THE CALCULATOR
14. 14.Chapter 10 AN EXCURSION: THE FUTURE DESIGN OF MACHINES THAT THINK — WHAT EXISTING MACHINES HAVE PROVED — NEW DEVICES FOR HANDLING INFORMATION — Magnetic Wire — Magnetic Tape — Mercury Tanks — Electrostatic Storage Tube — NEW OPERATIONS — NEW IDEAS IN PROGRAMMING — NEW IDEAS IN RELIABILITY — AUXILIARY DEVICES — MECHANICAL BRAINS UNDER CONSTRUCTION — Harvard’s Mark II — The IBM Selective-Sequence Electronic Calculator — Eckert-Mauchly’s Binac
15. 15.Chapter 11 THE FUTURE: MACHINES THAT THINK, AND WHAT THEY MIGHT DO FOR MEN — FUTURE TYPES OF MACHINES THAT THINK — Automatic Address Book — Automatic Library — Automatic Translator — Automatic Typist — Automatic Stenographer — Automatic Recognizer — TYPES OF PROBLEMS THAT MACHINES WILL SOLVE IN THE FUTURE — Problems of Control — Problems of Science — The Weather Brain — Psychological Testing — Psychological Trainer — Problems of Business — Machines and the Individual
16. 16.Chapter 12 SOCIAL CONTROL: MACHINES THAT THINK AND HOW SOCIETY MAY CONTROL THEM — MACHINE THAT BOTH THINKS AND ACTS — READING THIS CHAPTER — FRANKENSTEIN — ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS — FACT AND FANCY — Escape from Danger — UNEMPLOYMENT — SOCIAL CONTROL AND ITS TWO SIDES — TYPES OF CONTROL— IF MEN WERE REASONABLE — OBSTACLES — Ignorance — Prejudice — Narrow Point of View — CONCLUSION
17. 17.Supplement 1 WORDS AND IDEAS — WORDS AS INSTRUMENTS FOR EXPLAINING — SET OF WORDS FOR EXPLAINING — UNDERSTANDING IDEAS
18. 18.Supplement 2 MATHEMATICS — DEVICES FOR MULTIPLICATION — BINARY OR TWO NUMBERS — BIQUINARY OR TWO-FIVE NUMBERS — SOME OPERATIONS OF ALGEBRA — ALGEBRA OF LOGIC — pronoun, variable — multiplicand, dividend, augend, etc. — subtraction by adding, nines complement — end-around-carry — tens complement — power, square, cube, reciprocal, etc. — table, tabular value, argument, etc. — constant — infinity — equation, simultaneous, linear — derivative, integral, differential equation, etc. — exponential — logarithm — sine, cosine, tangent, antitangent — Bessel functions — matrix — differences, smoothness, checking
19. 19.Supplement 3 REFERENCES — THE HUMAN BRAIN — MATHEMATICAL BIOPHYSICS — LANGUAGES: WORDS AND SYMBOLS FOR THINKING — LANGUAGES: MACHINES FOR THINKING — PUNCH-CARD CALCULATING MACHINES — PUNCH-CARD CALCULATING MACHINERY: APPLICATIONS — THE DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER — HARMONIC ANALYZERS AND SYNTHESIZERS — NETWORK ANALYZERS — MACHINES FOR SOLVING ALGEBRAIC EQUATIONS — ANALOGUE MACHINES— MISCELLANEOUS — HARVARD IBM AUTOMATIC SEQUENCE-CONTROLLED CALCULATOR — ENIAC, THE ELECTRONIC NUMERIC INTEGRATOR AND CALCULATOR — BELL LABORATORIES RELAY COMPUTERS — THE KALIN-BURKHART LOGICAL-TRUTH CALCULATOR — OTHER DIGITAL MACHINES FINISHED OR UNDER DEVELOPMENT — THE DESIGN OF DIGITAL MACHINES — DIGITAL MACHINES— MISCELLANEOUS — APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL MACHINES
20. 20.NAME INDEX
21. 21.SUBJECT INDEX

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