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'
he human
mind
devoloped
tbe
c:om–
puter- the electronic brain - from
a erude idea
10
an elegant. super·
sophisticated masterpiece. Yet
ran–
dom chance supposedly "evolved" tbe
ineompreñensibly superior human mind
from small organic molecules.
Are we
10
believe tbat tbe computer
was
deslgntd
by tbe human mind, bul the
human mind itself jusi bappened 1Sy
coincidente? Oid random chance create
·rationalthinking?
Origin of !be Computer
lt
is impossible to establisb the exact
• date for tbe birth of the computer. Tbe
Chinese abacus goes baclc to antiquity,
but most scientiJic historians point to the
"diJrerence engine" of Charles Babbage,
an English mathematician and cccentri<:
genius of !be early nineteenth century, as
!be progenitorofthe computer.
Nearly
a
·century later, in 1915, tbe
Ford lnstrument Company produoed
a
erude ''mecltanical IJlOnster" operating
on vohages and rotatinggears. ActuaUy it
was an early
analog
or "c:ontinuously
measuring" computer.
Then, in 1939, Dr. Howard Aiken of
Harvard designed a machine whícb uti- ·
fi~ed
twomajor
brea~througbs:
!beuseof
real numbers (digits) ratberthan analogs,
and tbe self-contained ability to make
logical decisions. But
Aiken's
digital com–
puter was limited by its elec–
lrome<;hanical construction; its moving
paru continuously became faulty or
wom, and
as~-a
.cesult
enors were fre-
quently introduoed.
'-
Tbe next fundamental advancement in
computer technology
o=~rred
in 1943
when the U.S. Anny substituted elec–
lroniccireuits forelectromecbanical mov–
ing parts. A new machine, ENIAC
(Electócal-Numerical lntegrator and
Computer) was completed in 1945.
ENIAC was huge
ll
weighed 30 tons
and needed sorne 15,000 square fcet
ot
ftoor space. A man could titeraUy walk
through the "brai.n" of this early com·
puter.
lt
eontained over 19,000 large vac-
uum tubes.
_
But otber importan! advances quiclcly
followed ENIAC. Computers began to
store instruetions as weU as
data
in tbcir
memories. And so witb instructions al·
ready &iven
10
the computer in advance.
rap•d-fire operalions could be sUStained
without having to laboóously rewire the
c:omputer citcuitry_for eacb successive
operalioo.
·
Three Generations ofComputers
Finally, in 195l, Remington-Rand en–
gineers produced tbe first of our present·
day business-oriented computers, UNI–
V
AC
1,
a structure nine feet high, four–
teen feet long. eight feet deep and filled
witl\ vacuum tu
bes. UNJV
AC 1was still
a farcry from tbecomputers oftbe 1970$,
buttheexplosive proliferalionofc:omput·
ers had begun. Otber corporattons
quiclcly entered !be field. and
~I.B.M."
became a household term.
Enter solid-state electronics. Tbe tran–
sistor generated a new breaktbrough in
computer technology- the second gener·
ation had arrived. Justas the jet engine
revolution~d
tbe aviation industry,
so
the transistor revolutionized the c:om·
puter industry. Gone were tbe bulky cen–
tral processing units, whicb alone were
12
The Brain and the
COlNE18ENCE
OR
DESIGN?
by
Dr.
Robert
L.
Kuhn
equivalen! in
volum~
10
a
small office.
Electrical heat losses and power requ.ire>–
ments, formerly a problem witb vacuum–
tube circuits, were greatly reduoed.
Tbat was only the be&inning.
Third
Jtn~rarlon
computers came along with
tncredibly smaU and efficient micro–
circuitry consisting of tiny "chips."
Smaller than transistors,
mch
of tbese
"chip" mi<:rocircuits is tbe equivalen! of5
to 3,000 of the now "cumbersome" tran–
sistors, resistors, and diodes.
From vacuum tubes ro chips - it's
amazing what
a
30-year ratiooaUy deter·
mined uevolution" can aec:ompüsb. A
sewing thimble
can
hold enough semi–
conductor
microcircui~-
..Chips,. - to be
the working equivalent of tens or hun·
dreds of thousands of "old" vacuum
tubes. and in the volume previously occu–
pied by
one
such vaCII!!m tube, ample
room is available for miUions of these
ultra-efficient electronic components.
Computer
Specd
Anotber way of appreclaling tbe cx–
plosive evolulion ofc:omputer technology
is by c:omparing tbe numberofaritbmeti–
cal operations whícb
can
be made every
second. ILLIAC
l.
designed and devel–
oped at tbe University oflllinois i.n 1952,
could perform 11,000 operations per sec–
ond. ÍLLIAC
ll,
C9rnpleted in 1963,
could perfonn 500,000: And now, IL·
LIAC
IV, -
an extraordinary experi·
mental machine built incooperalion with
the Burroughs Corporation of Piola.
Pennsylvania - is capable of executing
between 100 and 200 million commands
persecond!
, Today, witb tbe advent of ILLIAC
IV,
a
seóous obstacle has
been
encountered
- a fundamental barrier tbat slows down
c:ompute:r operalion. Believe it or not.
11
is
thesp«d
oflight-
over 186,000 miles pir
second!
The ultimate limitation on the oper·
ating speed of a computer is the speed
witb which a signa! can be propagated
through an electócal conductor.
In
prac–
tice this is somewbatless than the specd of
light, which takes about ooe nanosec:ond
(one billiooth or·a second) lo travel one
foot.
lf we pause
10
reftect on this for
a
moment. the impact should be over–
whelming. Mankind is approaching the
point where, tbe slowest
par1
of bis com–
putation systems - !be
drag
on tbe wbole
Jystem- is tbe
speed
of
ligbt.
Nor is tbis tbe end of tbe pbenomenal
evolulioo of tbe c:omputer. ILLIAC
IV
can even
diagntm!
its own problems!
And it'! interesting
10
note
that
il
took
a
medium•siu computer (Burroughs B-
5500) worlcing almost fuU-lirne for two
years to help desígn the meticulous mi–
crocircuitry ofthe hardware and prepare
diagnoslic r.rograms for tbe sonware
(logic), while anotber computer, tbe
Burroughs
B-6500,
is wboUy devotcd
lO
ta/Jcing
to ll:.LIAC
IV.
"Nobody" else
can.
Tbis general-purpose computer
is
responsible for translating tbe many lan·
~uages
of tbe computer programmers
1nto tbe hardware-detennined language
of the big macbine itself.
Computers are now designing new
computers. Computers are progra¡n–
ming, testi.ng and improving each other.
Networks of computers are linked by
satellites! lt used to be science fiction.
Now il's just science. And very real.
New techniques of memory storage -
ulilizing laser bea.ms, holograpby, and
cryogenic diodes - give today's c:omput·
ers the capacity
10
store more tban ooe
tóllion - 1,000,000,000,000 - "bits" (or
tbe basic piCQCS) of informalion in
a
compar'alively smaU spaoe. One would
need about 250,000 standard magnetic
tapes to maintain an equivalen! amount
ofdata.
This
summer, lB
M
planned to come out
with the IBM 3850,
a
m~
storage de·
vice witb a memory capacity of over
4
quadrillion (4,000.000,000,000.000) bits
of infonnation)
The Brain Behiod tbe
Computer
Of course, these computer memories
remember because human brains de·
signed tbem. Computers compute
be–
cause
human brains developed tbem.
Tbe computer ' has dramatically
"evolved" becal!$0 human miods
mtUk
it evolve
1t
did not take millions 'upon
millions of years. About 30 years was
quite sufficient.
By comparison, examine the extraor·
dinary human brain. From tbe eye
alone, the
optic
nerve bóngs about one
billion bits or signals of visual informa–
l ion
per
s~cond
lo tbe brain. (There are
one miliion nerve fibers - each ofwhich
conveys one thousand bits per second.)
This doesn't take into aocount the bit·
IÍons of otber bits of.infonnalion scnt to
the brain from tbe eleven otber cranial
nerves and the massive fiber columns of
the spinal c:ord.
Consider tb.e aclivity in tbe cerebral
conex of tbe brain, tbe
tbin
(4 millime·
ter or 0.16 incb) outermost coveóng of
tbe brain. Here ten billion neurons re>–
side, processing ten trillion bits every
second. Tbis doesn't even consider the
other massive sections oftbe brain.
And contemplate this: The volume of
thc human brain is much less than
1/IOth of one cubic foot!
Chance evolulion? lt
is
far
ltss
likely
that the human miad would evolve by
random chance than tbat ILLIAC
IV
would be found in perfect running con–
dition by the fust American J.ndian
10
visit ,Piola, Pennsylvania.
Did tbe
Eterna!
Creator of heaven
and eartb need millions of years to
Hevolve•• man from
his "anthropoid
an·
cestOR" while c:omputer saenusts bave
been able to deve!op today's incredJbly
sophisticated c:omputers in just 30 years?
The ..evolution" of a computer
is
a
faseinating stoty of !he ertative abillty
ofthe human mind. How infinitely more
awesome must be tbe creative genius of
the Master Creator wbo designed the
human mind itself.
o
WEEK ENDINO
OCTOBER 18. 197S