Advent of Computing

Can a computer be creative? Can we program a machine to make art? It turns out the answer is yes, and it doesn't even take artificial intelligence. This episode we are diving in to the ILLIAC Suite, a piece for string quartet that was composed by a computer. Along the way we will examine the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, and how methods used to create the hydrogen bomb were adapted to create music.   Selected Sources:   https://archive.org/details/experimentalmusi0000hill/page/n5/mode/1up - Experimental Music   https://web.archive.org/web/20171107072033/http://www.computing-conference.ugent.be/file/12 - Algoryhythmic Listening(page 40)   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEb-H1Xb9XcIyrrN5qauFr2KAolSbPi0c - The ILLIAC Suite, in 4 parts

What is a computer? A miserable pile of electrons! But... not necessarily. I have yet to find a fully satisfying definition for "computer" that encompasses the full grandeur of calculating machines. This episode we are further complicating that quest by adding fluid based computers to the mix. We will be looking at 3 machines that crunched numbers using nothing but fluids and tubes. There's actually a rich tradition of fluidics to talk about.   Selected sources:   https://archive.org/details/electronicbrains0000hall/page/186/mode/2up - Electronic Brains chapter on MONIAC   https://archive.org/details/ACFELANALYTICALSTUDIESOFFREEZINGANDTHAWINGSOILS1953/LUKYANOV%20-%20Hydraulic%20Apparatus%20for%20Engineering%20Computations%20%281955%29/ - Translated paper on the water integrator   https://www.gwern.net/docs/cs/computable/1964-gluskin.pdf - FLODAC!

More Visi-fun ahead! Today we are looking at Visi On, a visionary user interface developed for home computers. Along the way we will discuss smalltalk, portability, and how the slick graphics over at Xerox were adapted to run on smaller machines.   Selected Sources:   http://toastytech.com/guis/vision.html - Toasty Tech's Visi On page, with screenshots and downloads for emulation   https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-06/page/n255/mode/2up - A Guided Tour of Visi On   https://archive.org/details/RosettaSmalltalkACM1979/mode/1up - Rosetta Smalltalk

Today we are looking at VisiCalc, the original killer app. Hitting the market in 1979, VisiCalc was the first computer spreadsheet program. Through it's 6 year lifespan it was ported to everything from the Apple II to the IBM PC to the Apple III. It dominated the market and then... it disappeared.   Selected Sources:   https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/113026 - Oral History with Bricklin and Frankston   http://www.bricklin.com/history/intro.htm - Bricklin's personal website   https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/MAHC.2007.4338439 - The creation and demise of VisiCalc

The  Standards Eastern Automatic Computer was built by the National Bureau of Standards in 1948. It started crunching numbers in 1950 and stayed in constant operation until... 1964!  This early machine, festooned with vacuum tubes, lived well past the first transistorized computers. So what exactly is SEAC doing so far into the semiconductor future? Selected Sources: https://archive.org/details/circularofbureau551unse/page/n7/mode/2up - Circular 551 https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/85.238389 - EDVAC Draft Report https://sci-hub.se/10.1145/1457720.1457763 - Imaging with SEAC

In this episode I talk with Aaron Reed, author of 50 Years of Text Games. We discuss the history of computer games, interactive fiction, business "gaming", and why we all love Adventure. You can find Aaron's work here: http://aaronareed.net/

Multitasking: we all do it. For a feature of modern computing multitasking has surprisingly old roots. It started out as timesharing on vacuum tube based machines, reached ubiquity on large computers, then hit a wall: the microcomputer. Multitasking didn't smoothly transition over as soon as home computers hit the scene. It took some time, and it took some adaptation. Today we are looking at what made timesharing work, early changes to microprocessors that paved the way for multitasking, and one of the first operating systems to support timesharing in the home.   Selected Sources:   https://www.roug.org/soren/6809/os9sysprog.html - OS-9 System Programmer's Manual   https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1979-01/page/n15/mode/2up - Article on the development of the 6809   https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/TEC.1962.5219356 - The One-Level Storage System

There's power in music, but not all tones are created equal. During the reign of Bell Telephone there was one tone in particular that opened up a world of possibilities: 2600 Hz. The devotees of this note were called phreakers, and in some cases they knew the telephone system better than Bell employees themselves. This episode were diving in to the early history of phreaking, how a bag of tricks was developed, and why exploring the phone grid was so much fun.   Selected sources:   http://explodingthephone.com/ - Phil Lapsley's book and website of the same name   https://archive.org/details/belltelephonemag09amerrich/page/205/mode/2up - All about the Holmes Burglar Alarm system   http://explodingthephone.com/docs/dbx0947.pdf - FBI's records on Barclay and the Blue Box

When people talk about early computers Babbage's Analytical Engine is bound to come up. Designed back in the 1830's it's definitely older than any other example of the art. But it also has a lot of strikes against it. The machine was purely mechanical. It only really did math. It stored numbers in decimal instead of binary. Worst of all, it only ever existed as designs on paper. So should we call this beast a computer? Or is it something else entirely?   Selected Sources:   https://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html - Sketch of the Analytical Engine, and Lovelace's Notes   https://web.archive.org/web/20210226094829/http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd/Courses/cs80/an-engine.pdf - Bromleys low level description of the engine   https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/978-3-642-61812-3_2 - On the Mathematical Powers of the Calculating Engine, by Charles Babbage   https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Oi3IhTZyVCAC/mode/1up - The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise, Babbage

We're getting back to my hypertext series with a big of an obscure tale. ZOG is a hypertext system what was first developed in 1972 at Carnegie-Melon University. It then stagnated until the latter half of the 1970s when it was picked back up. By 1983 it was cruising on a US Navy aircraft carrier. ZOG presents a hypertext system with some very modern notions. But here's the part that gets me excited: ZOG was developed after Doug Engelbart's Mother of All Demos. So, in theory, ZOG should take ques from this seminal event. Right? ... right?   Selected sources:   https://www.campwoodsw.com/mentorwizard/PROMISHistory.pdf - History of PROMIS   https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA049512.pdf - 1977 ZOG Report   https://apps.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA158084 - 1984 USS Carl Vinson Report