"Electronic brain" or "electric brain". Stereotypical 1950s term for a computer. The analogy between the telegraph and the nervous system goes back much furth

"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...