Lecture 3
MOVIE: The Thinking Machine
Chapter 10: A crisis with the American Census
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- What was the crisis?
- What did Hollerith invent? How did this evolve into early computers?
Chapter 11: The first Jacquard looms that wove information
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Discuss the link between Jacquard and Hollerith.
- Compare Jacquard & Babbage machines with Hollerith's contribution.
Chapter 12: The birth of IBM
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Discuss the evolution from Hollerith's company to IBM.
Chapter 13: The Thomas Watson phenomenon
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Describe how Thomas Watson was able to make IBM such a success.
Chapter 14: Howard Aiken dreams of a computer
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Describe the problems faced by developers of calculating machines.
- Discuss Aiken's contributions to computing.
Chapter 15: IBM and the Harvard Mark 1
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Compare the Mark 1 with the Difference Engine, Analytical Engine, ENIAC and the Manchester Baby.
Movie Discussion Questions
- Can machines think?
- Describe the challenges of getting computers to "think".
- Describe the Turing Test and its validity.
- Analyze the functioning of the Eliza program.
- Discuss the comment that "what was thought to be hard is easy, what was thought to be easy is hard"
- What was the first "computer": Difference Engine, Analytical Engine, ENIAC, Mark I, Colussus, Zuse's machine