George Dyson's continued downplaying of British computing efforts is tiresome

http://blog.jgc.org/2012/03/george-dysons-continued-downplaying-of.html

by jgrahamc • 14 years ago

55 18 14 years ago

blog.jgc.org

gaius• 14 years ago

Imagine what those wartime guys could have done with a BBC Micro!

The mythmaking around the early history of computing is fascinating (and maddening) to watch. In the rush to create compelling narratives around a few selected heroes, the complexities and the contributions of the many are too often shunted aside.

vidarh3• 14 years ago

You keep finding this mythmaking pretty much up to present-day, and permeating through other parts of the computing industry as well. It'll take a long time to untangle this and separate the myths from reality.

My "favorite" example is the hyped up reverence for Apple's role in the early days of the home computer, and the "cult of Woz", when they weren't first by a long shot, and largely priced themselves out of the race for many years, with sales a distant third after Radio Shack and Commodore.

Meanwhile a bunch of early guys at Commodore who directly influenced a lot more people are pretty much ignored, not least Chuck Peddle (the father of the 6502 at MOS Technology without which most of the 70's and 80's home computers would've looked very different, and of the KIM and Commodore PET computers, the latter which outsold Apple in the beginning, until replaced by the VIC 20)

To an extent it is down to who writes history - in this case Apple is the only survivor of the home computer wars, combined with being the only one of the larger players who were a predominantly Silicon Valley company (Commodore had offices there, but moved East, and never did as well in the US as elsewhere).

But as an old Commodore / Amiga user who's very aware of how short-changed Commodore has been by modern day mythmaking around the home computers, I wonder how much else of early computing history is twisted or forgotten that shouldn't have been...

crusso2• 14 years ago

But what are the rules of this "mythmaking" game you speak of? Seems like a pretty subjective game to get excited about in terms of right or wrong.

To play Devil's Advocate: Apple has been extraordinarily successful at inventing or popularizing multiple industries within the technology space. They're still around and doing very well financially and in the eyes of the consuming public.

Commodore/Amiga were neat in ways, but never could produce the "whole package" experience and business model they needed to last for the long haul. Surely they deserve some footnotes for their efforts, but their relative popularity/myth within the computer industry is just about where it should be.

blasterford2• 14 years ago

People don't want complicated history. They want "The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell". Even if it's factually incorrect or obscures the real story.

slowpoke• 14 years ago

There are some things where you should never give the people what they want. False history is one of these things.

wmat• 14 years ago

Is there an accurate account of the international history of computing in existence in book form?

andyjohnson0• 14 years ago

George Dyson is the son of the physicist Freeman Dyson, who worked at the Institute for Advance Study from 1953 during the time when von Neumann et al were building the IAS computer. He (George) gave a talk [1] in 2008 where he mentioned that he used to hang out at the IAS as a child and met von Neumann, Kurt Godel, and others. This probably explains his emphasis on the IAS and von Neumann.

I do agree with the opinion expressed in the article, though, that the British contribution tends to be downplayed. But as a brit myself we're used to that...

The Manchester Baby is in the science museum here in Manchester and its worth a look if you somehow find yourself in Manchester. The long-now talk is interesting, but you might want to fast-fwd past the stuff about canoes and tree houses.

http://longnow.org/seminars/02004/jan/09/theres-plenty-of-ro...

EDIT: typo

rst• 14 years ago

The Manchester machines were very significant for at least two reasons. First off, they were the first to feature "Williams tube" CRT memory, which was the high-speed memory of choice in any early computer effort that could afford it (including the IAS machine which is Dyson's subject, and for which he apparently fails to give Williams proper credit).

Second, it was the first machine to feature any kind of an index register, a facility that was quite widely copied. You can trace the influence from the spread of the Manchester name for the facility: they called it the "B-tube", a reference to the internal structure of their own machine. (Already having an "A-tube" for the accumulator, and a "C-tube" for control registers, they used the first free letter.) And if you read through the computing literature of the '50s, you'll find frequent references to index registers using terms like "B-boxes", which are otherwise inexplicable.

kamjam• 14 years ago

I do agree with the opinion expressed in the article, though, that the British contribution tends to be downplayed. But as a brit myself we're used to that...

I tend to find that is the case. Us brits tend to be less brash and more modest than our US counterparts.

On the flip side, we tend to be called unfriendly because of it!

abecedarius• 14 years ago

This review gives the impression that Dyson's book doesn't give credit for the Williams tube. It does. (The linked article in the Atlantic is guilty, though.)

It also links to an Amazon review championing Mauchly and Eckert; but there was a recent bio of Atanasoff (whose title I'm blanking on) saying basically that Mauchly ripped off Atanasoff, and von Neumann had plenty of contact with both sides, had a better grasp of Atanasoff's ideas, and probably worked behind the scenes to promote them and make sure they weren't patent-encumbered. (IIRC Atanasoff had a universal computer in mind but didn't try to make one as his first project because he wasn't going to get stuck Babbage-style taking on too much at once.)

Not to say this review may not have a point. I haven't finished Dyson's book yet.

oneofthose• 14 years ago

One often forgotten but truly fascinating character in the early days of computing is Konrad Zuse [0] who arguably built the first computer. If you are interested in computer history make sure to read his autobiography "The Computer - My Life". At some point he was financed by Nazi-Germany arms producers. About this he said (rough translation by me from German):

Too often is the inventor the Faustian idealist who tries to change the world but fails due to the harsh reality. If he wants to implement his idea, he has to get involved with powers, whose sense for reality is sharper and more pronounced than his. Today such powers are, without expressing a value judgment, military and management. [...] In my experience, chances are slim to defend oneself against such pacts.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse

George Dyson's continued downplaying of British computing efforts is tiresome

Related Stories