Machines that Think?

Presented by Lucas Mellinger

The Oriental Abacus

Circa 3000 BC Used a combination of beads and rods

to perform calculations. ABACUS

The Antikythera Mechanism 150-100 BC Discovered in 1902 by a diver off the

coast of Antikythera Island off the coast of Greece.

Origins are unclear. Speculation:– Constructed at an academy founded by the

philosopher Posidonius, on the Greek island of Rhodes.

– Carrying to Rome with other looted treasure.

The Antikythera Mechanism A similar machine was built by Archimedes and brought to

Rome after Archimedes’ death at the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC.

Device Functions:

– 365-day calendar that factored in leap year every four years– Reconciles the solar year with the lunar calendar– A star almanac, showing the times when the major stars and

constellations of the Greek zodiac would rise or set– (speculatively) may also have shown the positions of the

planets– Includes the main lunar anomaly (the Moon appears to move

across the heavens at different speeds at different times)

The Antikythera Mechanism Practical uses of this device:

– Calculating solar and lunar eclipses. However, the device would probably only have indicated days when eclipses might occur, and a more accurate calculation of the time of day would have to be done by hand.

– Setting the dates of religious festivals connected with astronomical events

– Adjusting calendars, which were based on lunar cycles as well as the solar year

Napier’s Bones 1617 - John Napier implemented new

system of logarithms with a set of movable sticks, often made of ivory.

Used for multiplication 1630 - William Oughtred improved

Napier’s design to invent the Slide Rule

Slide Rule Used to perform multiplication, division, squares,

square roots, logs, sine, cosine, and tangent calculations.

There are also many variants that include things like specialized scales for cubes and cube roots, and for making multiplication and division a bit easier.

More complicated slide rules can also include various log-log scales for calculating exponential powers in general, or natural logs, or various mathematical relationships.

SLIDE RULE

The Pascaline 1642 - 1652 Blaise Pascal designed the Pascaline Adding and subtracting Base-ten principal of dials (like car odometer) Dial in numbers to add or subtract and the machine

did the rest.

The Epitome of Monotony Mechanical devices in the 17th century

had to be crafted one-by-one. Each individual precision part had to be

fashioned by hand. “The genius of the inventor was often

held hostage to the skill of the metalworker.”

The Stepped Reckoner 1694 - Leibniz invented an improved

version of the Pascaline that could also multiply and divide.

Used binary (base-2) arithmetic, which was a major theoretical advancement.

Currently used for all modern computer language

The Arithmometer 1862 - Charles de Colmar Won a gold metal at an International

Convention in London Could mass produce

The Arithmometer Promotional Claims:

– Multiply two eight-digit numbers in 18 seconds

– Divide a sixteen-digit number by an eight-digit number in 24 seconds

– Find the square root of a sixteen-digit number in one minute

Manufactured and sold well into the 20th century

The Difference Engine

1822 - Charles Babbage generated logarithmic astronomical tables using his Difference Engine

Inspired by a programmable weaving loom

Created the Analytic Engine which accepted data from punched cards.

Analytic Engine Babbage and assistant Lovelace wrote

what is considered the first significant computer program

Designed to be steam powered Metalworking technology could not

match precision of the Analytic Engine The design and programs were

rediscovered in 20th century by computer designers

Technological Advances Industrial Revolution of the 19th century Mid-1800’s - George Boole develops

foundation for Boolean Algebra– Expressing logical processes in terms of

1’s and 0’s– Published two works:

• The Mathematical Analysis of Logic• The Laws of Thought

– Theoretical key to thinking circuitry in today’s computers

Technological Advances 1880’s - Herman Hollerith devised a

machine that ran on electricity to tabulate census data using punch cards.– Reduced processing time by 5 1/2 years– Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine

Company which later became IBM 1937 - Claude Shannon combined

Boolean algebra with electrical relays and switching circuits

Technological Advances World War II:

– Allan Turing invented machine to break German U-boat “Enigma code”

– Max Newman devised logic to bread the code, but was too slow and tedious

– In 1944 Tommy Flowers a huge machine, “Colossus,” that used 1500 vacuum tubes to run Newman’s decoding process

• Decoded German messages in hours vs.. weeks or months by hand

– Konrad Zuse created a functional electro-mechanical machine

• Some claim that he was the first inventor of electronic computers

Technological Advances 1941 - John Atanasoff and grad student

Clifford Berry built a programmable computer that solved systems of linear equations

1944 - First American general-purpose computer, “Mark I,” was built by IBM– Used mechanical and electromagnetic relays– Got instructions from punched paper tape– More than 50ft long– Contained 800,000 parts– Used more than 500 miles of wire

ENIAC 1946 - Electronic Numerical Integrator

and Calculator Constructed of forty-two 9x2x1 panels

with 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1500 electrical relays, and weighed more than 30 tons

Vacuum tubes made it 500 times faster than the Mark I

Not reliable: vacuum tubes burn out and had not data storage capacity

ENIAC

Get with the Program… 1949 - John von Neumann devised a

way to store programs inside a computer

EDSAC - Electronic Delayed Storage Automatic Computer

UNIVAC I - UNIVersal Automatic Computer– First commercial computer

UNIVAC I

Modern-Day Technology 1950’s - vacuum tube replaced by the

transistor invented by Bell Labs– Rivaled vacuum tubs by being smaller,

more powerful and more dependable Mid-1960’s - integrated circuitry making

personal computers more affordable 1967 - Texas Instruments officially recognized

for inventing the first pocket electronic calculator

“There has never been a technology in the history of the world that has progressed as fast as computer technology.”

TIMELINE Circa 3000 BC Invention of the Oriental Abacus 212 - 100 BC Antikythera Machines built for astronomical calculation 1617 Napier invented Napier’s Bones 1630 Oughtred invents the Slide Rule 1642 - 1652 Invention of the Pascaline for adding and subtracting 1694 Leibniz invents the Stepped Reckoner for adding,

subtracting, multiplying, and dividing 1862 Colmar invents the Arithmometer Mid-1800’s Babbage invents the Difference Engine and the

Analytic Engine. Lovelace helps to write the first logical programs

1800’s INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1937 Shannon combines Boolean algebra with electrical

relays and switching circuits WWII Computers, logic, and algorithms progressed to break

war codes 1941 John Atanasoff builds first programmable computer 1944 Mark I built by IBM 1946 Invention of ENIAC Mid-1900’s Storable programs and invention of EDSAC

andUNIVAC I

TIMELINE 1950’s Vacuum tube replaced by the transistor Mid-1960’s Integrated circuitry made computers more affordable 1967 Texas Instruments invents first hand-held calculator 1970 - Present Day Computer technology advances at an incredible rate.

Resources Berlinghoff, W.P, & Gouvea, F.Q. Math Through the Ages: A

Gentle History for Teachers and Others. Farmington: Oxton House Publishing (2002). p. 175-180.

Decker, R., & Hirschfield, S. The Analytical Engine. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA, 1990. p. 17.

Henke, G. http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/ghenke/historycalc.html

http://www.taswegian.com/SRTP/JavaSlide/javaslide.html http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/java/AbacusAppJS.html Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism