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Who created the world's first working programmable, fully automatic digital computer? And why does everyone think it's an American, 4 years later? https://en.w

by akie 2y ago

Who created the world's first working programmable, fully automatic digital computer? And why does everyone think it's an American, 4 years later? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer) History is not a collection of objective records.

necovek 2y ago
Even that Wikipedia page has this snippet: In 1937, Claude Shannon introduced the idea of mapping Boolean algebra onto electronic relays in a seminal work on digital circuit design. Zuse, however, did not know of Shannon's work and developed the groundwork independently[11]: 149 for his first computer Z1, which he designed and built from 1935 to 1938.
ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
I believe that invention was a bit controversial, for some reason...
- oytis 2y ago
  A lot of modern Germans seem to be very proud of it for some reason. Also Zuse's company existed long after the WWII.
jillesvangurp 2y ago
I saw the replica of this in Berlin in the museum of technology a few months ago. Worth visiting if you are in town.
hvs 2y ago
Because every computer record has a host of qualifiers on it (like "programmable", "fully automatic").
spogbiper 2y ago
"The Z3 was demonstrated in 1998 to be, in principle, Turing-complete. However, because it lacked conditional branching, the Z3 only meets this definition by speculatively computing all possible outcomes of a calculation." this is the one factor that makes me question whether it should be considered first.. conditional branching is pretty significant to what we consider a computer. better informed people than myself have come up with a variety of takes on this, i read all that i see because i find Zuse fascinating but i still am not sure if its fair to call one system or the other "first". the advent of computing podcast has some interesting well researched episodes, scroll down a little to 145 and 146: https://adventofcomputing.com/ https://adventofcomputing.com/

by akie 2y ago

necovek 2y ago

Even that Wikipedia page has this snippet: In 1937, Claude Shannon introduced the idea of mapping Boolean algebra onto electronic relays in a seminal work on digital circuit design. Zuse, however, did not know of Shannon's work and developed the groundwork independently[11]: 149 for his first computer Z1, which he designed and built from 1935 to 1938.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago

I believe that invention was a bit controversial, for some reason...

oytis 2y ago
A lot of modern Germans seem to be very proud of it for some reason. Also Zuse's company existed long after the WWII.

jillesvangurp 2y ago

I saw the replica of this in Berlin in the museum of technology a few months ago. Worth visiting if you are in town.

hvs 2y ago

Because every computer record has a host of qualifiers on it (like "programmable", "fully automatic").

spogbiper 2y ago

"The Z3 was demonstrated in 1998 to be, in principle, Turing-complete. However, because it lacked conditional branching, the Z3 only meets this definition by speculatively computing all possible outcomes of a calculation." this is the one factor that makes me question whether it should be considered first.. conditional branching is pretty significant to what we consider a computer. better informed people than myself have come up with a variety of takes on this, i read all that i see because i find Zuse fascinating but i still am not sure if its fair to call one system or the other "first". the advent of computing podcast has some interesting well researched episodes, scroll down a little to 145 and 146: https://adventofcomputing.com/ https://adventofcomputing.com/