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Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

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Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#21
post #8
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person who invented the computer. Which somehow no US school teaches about. He also developed a very awesome high-level language very early on.

Charles Babbage is as far as I know the uncontested inventor of the computer, which somehow even German schools teach about.

Which creates the interesting questions of:

1. Is da Vinci (or someone earlier) the inventor of the helicopter? Does invention include something working?

2. What is a computer? A calculator? Is the Antikythera a computer? Does it need to be Turing complete?

3. Didn't hear about Babbage in 13y of German schools ;-) But then what are schools? Is university included in "school"?

Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#22
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it Turing complete? Because Zuse's Z3 was. I'm not saying though, that this is a criteria for calling any machine a computer. But it's probably what sets Zuse's achievement apart. UPDATE: I've just learned that Babbage's language was also Turing complete. So Zuse's achievement is solely having physically built the first working computer, while Babbage's machine was never realized.

Babbage invented the concept of the programmable computer, Zuse built a programmable electronic computer, which could later be shown to be turing-complete. Those things are pretty subtle, and the 'national' version is always the least subtle, I guess ;) Leonardo da Vinci also invented tanks and helicopters, and then it took a couple of hundred years to build some.

And Pascal invented the calculator

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_calculator

Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#23

Zuse is an interesting example of history being written by the victors. Ask any German who invented the computer and they'll tell you it was Konrad Zuse, but he is almost completely unknown elsewhere. Turing did brilliant work, but Zuse did the job of Turing and Tommy Flowers, working in isolation with very limited resources.

As can be seen on Wikipedia: [1] vs. [2] - the English version of "computer science" does not mention Zuse. Time to change? Similarly, the German version of "Computer" mentions Zuse 20 times [3]; the English version starts describing the Z2 [4]. Quite fascinating how Wikipedia is written through the local lense. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informatik#Entwicklung_moderne... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comp…

Excellent catch! I love Wikipedia with all their faults but probably we need not so difficult to build tools to recognize anomalies between Wikipedia cultures... sorry, languages.

Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#24
post #15
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. The Z3 is exhibited at the Deutsches Museum in Munich: http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhibitions/communication/... Here's the Z3 in action (German only, try subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXnhVrT4CI

I can highly recommend a visit there. Not only you can see an original Z4 and a replica of the Z3, but also lot's of more science and history related exhibitions. Don't miss the Enigma!

Among the more impressive specimens, you can also see an A4 rocket (better known as V2).

Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#25

Zuse is an interesting example of history being written by the victors. Ask any German who invented the computer and they'll tell you it was Konrad Zuse, but he is almost completely unknown elsewhere. Turing did brilliant work, but Zuse did the job of Turing and Tommy Flowers, working in isolation with very limited resources.

> "Zuse is an interesting example of history being written by the victors."

This may hold true for the Zuse story, but he's also an example for german history about german scientists. While the Wikipedia article (both german and english) mentioning his ties to the NS and the german defence industry of that time, you probably find no hint about that at universities where lecture halls are named after him. For example in Hamburg, where the only "real" lecture hall at the CS department is named after him. In the small exhibition about his scientific life beneath this lecture hall you don't find a word about that (at least the last time I was there).

Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also seems Turing and Zuse probably met in 1947: http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/Turing_Zus...

The article makes it sound like he waterboarded him, but that's probably just because the word 'interrogate' has become so unpredictably uncivilized in recent usage.

It seems like there was probably a degree of duress and that this was a continuation of a series of "interrogations" where perhaps a greater deal of duress was necessary? Not that the German scientists were necessarily unwilling but that they were anyway required to attend:

>"As the behaviour towards German scientists had already improved considerably in 1947,the interrogation had the more elegant form of a small colloquium. A handful of German specialists from Göttingen had been invited among them also myself. The significant German people who there gave talks were Professor Alwin Walther who had been thoroughly concerned with Hollerith machines and differential analyzers at the Darmstadt Institute of Technology, and Konrad Zuse with his relay calculators. If in addition Professor Friedrich Willers from Dresden had also participated, all leading German scientists who have been busy during the war in the development of sequence controlled calculating machines would have been there. Though Willers was in the Soviet occupation zone and therefore probably not available for the Britons." (http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/Turing_Zus...) //

Note that Porter from the NPL later mentions performing an "investigation" as part of a military operation, in his military uniform (despite there being no requirement to do so). Also:

>"Undoubtedly, the participation at the colloquium of Göttingen was not optional. (ibid, p.5)"

tl;dr - It sounds like there's evidence to suggest Turing had an unreported meeting with Zuse in 1948. There is also a suspicion that Turing could have met with Zuse in 1934 on a trip to Gottingen.

Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#27

Zuse is an interesting example of history being written by the victors. Ask any German who invented the computer and they'll tell you it was Konrad Zuse, but he is almost completely unknown elsewhere. Turing did brilliant work, but Zuse did the job of Turing and Tommy Flowers, working in isolation with very limited resources.

As can be seen on Wikipedia: [1] vs. [2] - the English version of "computer science" does not mention Zuse. Time to change? Similarly, the German version of "Computer" mentions Zuse 20 times [3]; the English version starts describing the Z2 [4]. Quite fascinating how Wikipedia is written through the local lense. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informatik#Entwicklung_moderne... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comp…

[deleted]

Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article makes it sound like he waterboarded him, but that's probably just because the word 'interrogate' has become so unpredictably uncivilized in recent usage.

It seems like there was probably a degree of duress and that this was a continuation of a series of "interrogations" where perhaps a greater deal of duress was necessary? Not that the German scientists were necessarily unwilling but that they were anyway required to attend: >"As the behaviour towards German scientists had already improved considerably in 1947,the interrogation had the more elegant form of a small col…

The bit about wearing a military uniform seems strange.

My grandfather was part of a similar investigation of the German electronics industry, he had done his PhD at Aachen in the early 30s and found that he already knew all the senior people, I can't imagine him wearing a uniform.

Re: Konrad Zuse and the digital revolution he started 75 years ago

#30
post #19

Also of interest are some of his other innovations: - Plankalkuel, by some criteria the first high-level programming language [1]. - Digital physics [2]. I have no idea if this is taken seriously by physicists. - First chess program, predating Wiener, Shannon and Turing [3]. - First implementation of floating point numbers [4]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalkül [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating…

Amazing work.

>The original notation was two dimensional. (!)

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