GIANT BRAINS
OR
MACHINES THAT THINK
EDMUND CALLIS BERKELEY
Consultant in Modern Technology
President, E. C. Berkeley and Associates
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC., NEW YORK
CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED, LONDON
Copyright, 1949
by
EDMUND CALLIS BERKELEY
All Rights Reserved
This book or any part thereof must not
be reproduced in any form without
the written permission of the publisher.
Second Printing, February, 1950
Printed in the United States of America
To my friends,
whose help and instruction
made this book possible
PREFACE
The Subject, Purpose, and Method
of this Book
The subject of this book is a type of machine that comes closer tobeing a brain that thinks than any machine ever did before 1940. Thesenew machines are called sometimes mechanical brains and sometimessequence-controlled calculators and sometimes by other names.Essentially, though, they are machines that can handle information withgreat skill and great speed. And that power is very similar to thepower of a brain.
These new machines are important. They do the work of hundreds of humanbeings for the wages of a dozen. They are powerful instruments forobtaining new knowledge. They apply in science, business, government,and other activities. They apply in reasoning and computing, and, theharder the problem, the more useful they are. Along with the release ofatomic energy, they are one of the great achievements of the presentcentury. No one can afford to be unaware of their significance.
In this book I have sought to tell a part of the story of these newmachines that think. Perhaps you, as you start this book, may not agreewith me that a machine can think: the first chapter of this book isdevoted to the discussion of this question.
My purpose has been to tell enough about these machines so that wecan see in general how they work. I have sought to explain somegiant brains that have been built and to show how they do thinkingoperations. I have sought also to talk about what these machines can doin the future and to judge their significance for us. It seems to methat they will take a load off men’s as great as the load thatprinting took off men’s writing: a tremendous burden lifted.
We need to examine several of the new mechanical brains: MassachusettsInstitute of Technology’s differential analyzer, Harvard’s IBMautomatic sequence-controlled calculator, Moore School’s ENIAC[Pg viii](Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator), and BellLaboratories’ general-purpose relay calculator. These are described inthe sequence in which they were finished between the years 1942 and 1946.
We also have to go on some excursions—for instance, the nature oflanguage and of symbols, the meaning of thinking, the human brain andnervous system, the future design of machinery that can think, and alittle algebra and logic. I have also sought to discuss the relationsbetween machines that think and human society—what we can foresee aslikely to happen or be needed as a result of the remarkable inventionof machines that can think.
READING THIS BOOK
This book is intended for everyone. I have sought to put it together insuch a way that any reader can select from it what he wants.
Perhaps at first reading you want only the main threa