Giant brains; or, Machines that think
EDMUND CALLIS BERKELEY
Consultant in Modern Technology President, E. C. Berkeley and Associates
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC., NEW YORK CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED, LONDON
Copyright, 1949 by EDMUND CALLIS BERKELEY
All Rights Reserved
This book or any part thereof must not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.
Second Printing, February, 1950
Printed in the United States of America
To my friends, whose help and instruction made this book possible
The subject of this book is a type of machine that comes closer to being a brain that thinks than any machine ever did before 1940. These new machines are called sometimes mechanical brains and sometimes sequence-controlled calculators and sometimes by other names. Essentially, though, they are machines that can handle information with great skill and great speed. And that power is very similar to the power of a brain.
These new machines are important. They do the work of hundreds of human beings for the wages of a dozen. They are powerful instruments for obtaining new knowledge. They apply in science, business, government, and other activities. They apply in reasoning and computing, and, the harder the problem, the more useful they are. Along with the release of atomic energy, they are one of the great achievements of the present century. No one can afford to be unaware of their significance.
In this book I have sought to tell a part of the story of these new machines that think. Perhaps you, as you start this book, may not agree with me that a machine can think: the first chapter of this book is devoted to the discussion of this question.
Edmund Callis Berkeley
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READING THIS BOOK
UNDERSTANDING THIS BOOK
BASIC FACTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CONTENTS
HUMAN THINKING
NERVES AND THEIR PROPERTIES
BEHAVIOR THAT IS THINKING
THE DEFINITION OF A MECHANICAL BRAIN
WHY ARE THESE GIANT BRAINS IMPORTANT?
LANGUAGES
SCHEMES FOR EXPRESSING MEANINGS
QUANTITY OF INFORMATION
LANGUAGES OF PHYSICAL OBJECTS
THE CONTROL OF SIMON
THE USEFULNESS OF SIMON
SIMON’S COMPUTING AND REASONING
PUTTING SIMON TOGETHER
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
TYPES OF PUNCH-CARD MACHINES
HANDLING INFORMATION
ARITHMETICAL OPERATIONS
LOGICAL OPERATIONS
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
ANALOGUE MACHINES
PHYSICAL QUANTITIES
DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PHYSICAL PROBLEMS
SOLVING PHYSICAL PROBLEMS
ANSWERS
HOW THE DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER CALCULATES
AN APPRAISAL OF THE MACHINE
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
GENERAL ORGANIZATION
PHYSICAL DEVICES
NUMBERS
RAPID APPROXIMATION FOR A LOGARITHM
AN APPRAISAL OF THE CALCULATOR
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
GENERAL ORGANIZATION
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
PROBLEMS
AN APPRAISAL OF THE CALCULATOR
TRUTH
LOGICAL TRUTH
LOGICAL PATTERNS
THE SIMPLEST LOGICAL PATTERNS
CALCULATION OF LOGICAL TRUTH
UNITS OF THE MACHINE
A COMPLETE AND CONCRETE EXAMPLE
AN APPRAISAL OF THE CALCULATOR
WHAT EXISTING MACHINES HAVE PROVED
NEW DEVICES FOR HANDLING INFORMATION
NEW OPERATIONS
NEW IDEAS IN PROGRAMMING
NEW IDEAS IN RELIABILITY
AUXILIARY DEVICES
MECHANICAL BRAINS UNDER CONSTRUCTION
FUTURE TYPES OF MACHINES THAT THINK
MACHINE THAT BOTH THINKS AND ACTS
READING THIS CHAPTER
FRANKENSTEIN
ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS
FACT AND FANCY
UNEMPLOYMENT
OBSTACLES
CONCLUSION
SET OF WORDS FOR EXPLAINING
UNDERSTANDING IDEAS
DEVICES FOR MULTIPLICATION
BINARY OR TWO NUMBERS
SOME OPERATIONS OF ALGEBRA
ALGEBRA OF LOGIC
THE HUMAN BRAIN
MATHEMATICAL BIOPHYSICS
PUNCH-CARD CALCULATING MACHINES
THE DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER
HARMONIC ANALYZERS AND SYNTHESIZERS
NETWORK ANALYZERS
BELL LABORATORIES RELAY COMPUTERS
THE DESIGN OF DIGITAL MACHINES
APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL MACHINES
NAME INDEX
SUBJECT INDEX
