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The first thing the computer did was break the German codes. The second thing the computer did was model atomic explosions. Computers are war machines first a

The first thing the computer did was break the German codes. The second thing the computer did was model atomic explosions. Computers are war machines first and foremost.

marcosdumay 5y ago
IBM was selling computers 4 decades before they were used to break the German codes.
- carapace 5y ago
  What do you mean? IBM didn't sell computers until 1952: > IBM built the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, an electromechanical computer, during World War II. It offered its first commercial stored-program computer, the vacuum tube based IBM 701, in 1952. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM#History
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    Oh, I remembered one less decade, it was 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabulating_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabulating_machine Things didn't use to be name "computer" before Turing, for reasons that are a bit less obvious than they appear to be at first, but the idea is quite old.
    - carapace 5y ago
      edit: Have we had this argument before? - - - - > Oh, I remembered one less decade, it was 5. Not to split hairs but IBM was founded in 1911. > Things didn't use to be named "computer" before Turing, for reasons that are a bit less obvious than they appear to be at first, but the idea is quite old. Babbage and Lovelace had the idea a couple of centuries ago, but tabulating machines and the business machines IBM sold aren't quite the same thing as what we think of as a "computer" today. Arguably the thing that most differentiates them- easy of re-programmability -is exactly what makes our modern machinery so untrustworthy. Leaving aside the argument that accounting and tabulating are themselves tools of "the state" (e.g. the tabulating machine was "designed to assist in summarizing information ... for the 1890 U.S. Census.") can you deny that what might be called "computational supremacy" has been and continues to be a crucial aspect of international relations?

The first thing the computer did was break the German codes. The second thing the computer did was model atomic explosions. Computers are war machines first and foremost.

marcosdumay 5y ago

IBM was selling computers 4 decades before they were used to break the German codes.

carapace 5y ago
What do you mean? IBM didn't sell computers until 1952: > IBM built the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, an electromechanical computer, during World War II. It offered its first commercial stored-program computer, the vacuum tube based IBM 701, in 1952. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM#History
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  Oh, I remembered one less decade, it was 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabulating_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabulating_machine Things didn't use to be name "computer" before Turing, for reasons that are a bit less obvious than they appear to be at first, but the idea is quite old.
  - carapace 5y ago
    edit: Have we had this argument before? - - - - > Oh, I remembered one less decade, it was 5. Not to split hairs but IBM was founded in 1911. > Things didn't use to be named "computer" before Turing, for reasons that are a bit less obvious than they appear to be at first, but the idea is quite old. Babbage and Lovelace had the idea a couple of centuries ago, but tabulating machines and the business machines IBM sold aren't quite the same thing as what we think of as a "computer" today. Arguably the thing that most differentiates them- easy of re-programmability -is exactly what makes our modern machinery so untrustworthy. Leaving aside the argument that accounting and tabulating are themselves tools of "the state" (e.g. the tabulating machine was "designed to assist in summarizing information ... for the 1890 U.S. Census.") can you deny that what might be called "computational supremacy" has been and continues to be a crucial aspect of international relations?