Electronic Brains: Stories from the Dawn of the Computer Age
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BOOK REVIEW
Electronic Brains: Stories from the Dawn of the Computer Age Mike Hally Published by Granta Books, 2005, p. 274 ISBN number: 1-86207-663-4 Reviewed by: Brian W. Hollocks Bournemouth University Business School, Bournemouth University, 17-19 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, Dorset BH1 3LH, UK
European Journal of Information Systems (2006) 15, 663–664. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000651
Review of the book detailed above: The basis of this book lies in a series of four 15 min programmes, entitled ‘Electronic Brains’, produced by the author for BBC Radio 4. I did not hear any of the series but, apparently, each of the four programmes took a different ‘story’ from the early history of computers (just after WWII). The producer/author did not limit himself to the inevitable LEO/ENIAC etc UK/USA axis, but interestingly added Russian (particularly Ukrainian) and Australian threads. These reveal pioneering contributions commonly neglected. The book supplements the original radio material, and adds specific chapters on the rise of IBM as a computing power and, curiously, the Philips Hydraulic Economics Computer. The main thrusts of the book are the personnel and the technical; save IBM, there is very limited commercial history. Many books and journal articles have emerged over the years on the emergence and history of computers (such as Berkeley (1956) and Mowery (2003)) and other individuals are still compiling and consolidating records and information (such as Wenning concerning Remington Rand). The ‘story’ nature of this book gives it a particular flavour, with anecdotes, personalities and human (as well as defence and business) angles. There is significant factual content within its scope and, because of the apparent range of interviews, interesting insights into the times – the problems of funding, the conflicts and management issues, the technical obstacles and innovations. It underlines the pivotal roles of some particular early projects, such as LEO (Lyons Electronic Office). Inevitably, the book includes memorable quotations. For example, an early pioneer, Howard Aiken - a Harvard Professor of Applied Mathematics, is alleged to have said in 1948 that ‘there will never be enough problems, enough work, for more than one or two of these computers’. That undercuts the oft-cited IBM CEO 1950s estimate of a ‘world-wide market of about five’. (Admittedly Aiken was a pioneer in electro-mechanical computation, but even so it was a limited vision!) Art Gehring, an early UNIVAC project (as distinct from Univac, the company) pioneer, is quoted as saying ‘I feel sorry for people today that I don’t think have anywhere near the excitement y that we had’. I confess to some personal sympathy for that view; perhaps readers will tell me I’m wrong? Unfortunately the book’s ‘story’ orientation rather constrains the scope of the coverage – for example, omitting the emergence of early ‘production’ computers (such as Ferranti’s Pegasus and Elliott Automation’s 803 and 503) other than IBM and some Rand, and the corresponding early
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