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Not sure if there is an equivalent in English, but I know that an "archaic" German term for computers from the 1940s and 50s is "Elektronengehirn". So the conne

by xg15 3y ago

Not sure if there is an equivalent in English, but I know that an "archaic" German term for computers from the 1940s and 50s is "Elektronengehirn". So the connection has always been always there. Edit: An article about the origin of the term and historic connections/comparisons being made between brains and computers: https://www.nzz.ch/digital/computer-wie-die-elektronenhirne-die-welt-eroberten-ld.1516256 https://www.nzz.ch/digital/computer-wie-die-elektronenhirne-... (in German)

pxeger1 3y ago
(Gehirn = brain)
tczMUFlmoNk 3y ago
This is also the case in Mandarin, where 电脑 diàn nǎo is literally "electronic brain".
JohnFen 3y ago
It's also interesting to look back on how people have analogized the functioning of the brain. Before computers, it was analogized as internal combustion engines. Before that, as the belt-and-pully power distribution that was used with water wheels.
retrac 3y ago
"Electronic brain" or "electric brain". Stereotypical 1950s term for a computer. The analogy between the telegraph and the nervous system goes back much further. In 1855, William F. Channing wrote: > The electric telegraph is thus the nervous system of this nation and of modern society by no figure of speech, by no distant analogy. Its wires spread like nerves over the surface of the land, interlinking distant parts, and making possible a perpetually higher co-operation among men, and higher social forms than have hitherto existed. The fact that the nervous system involved electricity in some way, was understood by that time. He was probably not the first to think of the analogy, and it would become common by the late 19th century. [1] William F Channing, "The American Fire-Alarm Telegraph" https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101620765-bk https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101620765...

by xg15 3y ago

pxeger1 3y ago

(Gehirn = brain)

tczMUFlmoNk 3y ago

This is also the case in Mandarin, where 电脑 diàn nǎo is literally "electronic brain".

JohnFen 3y ago

It's also interesting to look back on how people have analogized the functioning of the brain. Before computers, it was analogized as internal combustion engines. Before that, as the belt-and-pully power distribution that was used with water wheels.

retrac 3y ago

"Electronic brain" or "electric brain". Stereotypical 1950s term for a computer. The analogy between the telegraph and the nervous system goes back much further. In 1855, William F. Channing wrote: > The electric telegraph is thus the nervous system of this nation and of modern society by no figure of speech, by no distant analogy. Its wires spread like nerves over the surface of the land, interlinking distant parts, and making possible a perpetually higher co-operation among men, and higher social forms than have hitherto existed. The fact that the nervous system involved electricity in some way, was understood by that time. He was probably not the first to think of the analogy, and it would become common by the late 19th century. [1] William F Channing, "The American Fire-Alarm Telegraph" https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101620765-bk https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101620765...