Darwin Among the Machines (50 page)

10
.
Robert Davidge, “Processors as Organisms,” University of Sussex, School of Cognitive and Computing Science, CSRP no. 250, October 1992, 2.

11
.
Ibid.

12
.
Samuel Butler,
Luck, or Cunning, as the main means of Organic Modification?
(London: Trübner & Co., 1887); reprinted as vol. 8 of
The Shrewsbury Edition of the Works of Samuel Butler
(London: Jonathan Cape, 1924), 58.

13
.
W. Daniel Hillis, “New Computer Architectures and Their Relationship to Physics, or Why Computer Science Is No Good,”
International Journal of Theoretical Physics
21, nos. 3–4 (April 1982): 257.

14
.
Samuel Butler,
Life and Habit
(London: Trübner & Co., 1878), 128–129.

15
.
Olaf Stapledon,
Last and First Men
(London: Methuen, 1930); reprinted, from the U.S. edition of 1931, in
Last and First Men & Star Maker
(New York: Dover Publications, 1968), 226.

16
.
William H. Calvin, “Fast Tracks to Intelligence (Considerations from Neurobiology and Evolutionary Biology),” in George Marx, ed.,
Bioastronomy—The Next Steps: Proceedings of the 99th Colloquium of the IAU
(New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988), 241.

17
.
George Dyson,
Grenade Fighting: The Training and Tactics of Grenadiers
(New York: George H. Doran Co., 1917), 11.

18
.
George Dyson,
Grenade Warfare: Notes on the Training and Organization of Grenadiers
(London: Sifton, Praed & Co., 1915), 6.

19
.
Ibid., 8.

20
.
Ibid., 7.

21
.
Ibid., 11.

22
.
Garet Garrett,
Ouroboros; or, the Mechanical Extension of Mankind
(New York: Dutton, 1926), 51.

23
.
Sir George Dyson, “Fred Devenish and Others,”
R.C.M. Magazine
51, no. 2 (1955): 36.

24
.
Sir George Dyson,
Fiddling While Rome Burns
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954), 30–31.

25
.
Sir George Dyson, address to the Royal College of Music, September 1949; reprinted in Christopher Palmer, ed.,
Dyson's Delight: An Anthology of Sir George Dyson's Writings and Talks on Music
(London: Thames Publishing, 1989), 80.

26
.
Dyson,
Fiddling
, 32–34.

27
.
W. Daniel Hillis, “Intelligence as an Emergent Behavior; or. The Songs of Eden,”
Daedalus
, (winter 1988) (Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 117, no. 1), 177–178.

28
.
Felix Mendelssohn to Marc-André Souchay, 15 October 1842, in Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy, ed.,
Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from 1833–1847
(London, 1864), 23–24.

29
.
John Wilkins,
Mercury; or, the Secret and Swift messenger: Shewing, How a Man may with Privacy and Speed communicate his Thoughts to a Friend at any distance
(London: John Maynard, 1641), 141, 143.

30
.
J. B. S. Haldane, “Man's Destiny,”
Possible Worlds
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928), 303.

31
.
Garrett,
Ouroboros
, 19.

32
.
Ibid., 24.

33
.
Ibid., 100.

34
.
Ibid., 92.

35
.
Ibid., 51.

36
.
Isaac Newton,
Opticks; or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. The Fourth Edition, Corrected
(London: William Innys, 1730); reprinted, with a foreword by Albert Einstein (London: G. Bell, 1931; New York, Dover Publications, 1952), 370 (page citation is to the 1952 edition).

37
.
Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,”
Atlantic Monthly
9, no. 56 (June 1862): 665.

A

Aberdeen (Md.) proving ground,
79–80

absolute addressing,
114

Accidents and Emergencies; A Guide for their Treatment before the arrival of Medical Aid
(Smee),
45

adaptation,
6
,
113
,
114

and evolution of software,
57
,
185

without natural selection,
176–77

addition, modulo,
66

Adleman, Leonard,
165

AEC (Atomic Energy Commission),
77
,
91
,
102
,
118

Agamemnon
(Aeschylus),
131–32

agents (software),
182
,
185
,
189

Air Force, U.S.,
76
,
144–45
,
152
,
178–80
,
183
.
see also
nuclear weapons
;
RAND
;
SAGE

air pump (Boyle),
3
,
134

Alamogordo (New Mexico) bomb test,
78

alchemy,
214

Alexander I (Czar),
141

Alexander, James,
96

algae,
112
,
129

algebra,
43
.
see also
Boolean algebra
;
philosophical algebra

algorithms,
54
,
58
,
158

for binary arithmetic, of Leibniz,
37

packet switching,
12
,
42
,
151

and punched-card data processing,
83–84

alphabet,
49
,
62
,
132
,
137–38
,
140
,
225

binary coding of,
61
,
132–33
,
143

genetic,
27
,
118

of ideas, and Leibniz,
36–38

of machine instructions,
118
,
121

and Turing machine,
55

Ampère, André-Marie (1775–1836)

and
cybernétique
,
6
,
141
,
161–162

and game theory,
6
,
153–54

on telegraphy and electrodynamics,
141

“Analogy Between Mental Images and Sparks” (Richardson),
87

analytical engine (Babbage),
38–43
,
59
,
68
,
103

AN-FSQ-7 computer (Army-Navy Fixed Special eQuipment),
179–81
.
see also
SAGE

architecture, computer.
See
computer architecture

architecture, naval,
161

architecture, network,
2
,
12
,
157
,
167
,
168
,
205
,
208
.
see also
neural networks

Argonne National Laboratory,
98
,
107

argument from design,
18
,
116
,
185–86
,
188–89

arithmetic,
120
,
135
,
156
,
168
,
178
,
212
,
214
.
see also
binary arithmetic
;
Boolean arithmetic
;
political arithmetic

floating point,
68
,
106

and incompleteness,
49
,
50
,
54

and logic,
7
,
36
,
38
,
44
,
50

and mind,
6–7
,
39
,
109
,
110

powers of, and Vannevar Bush,
61–62

arithmetic engine (Hooke),
135

armada, Spanish,
5
,
133

Arms and Insecurity
(Richardson),
87

army, French, in World War I,
86
,
193–94

army, U.S.,
67
,
79
,
80–81
,
91
,
145

art, and imagination,
222

artificial intelligence,
59
,
128
,
177
,
179
,
189
,
211–14

alien, in origin or time scale,
187–88
,
217
,
224

and Babbage,
35
,
41–42

and Butler,
24–26
,
28
,
33–34
,
188

cautions against,
16
,
24–26
,
33–34
,
192
,
224
,
226–27

collective,
7
,
10–11
,
13
,
34
,
72
,
109–110
,
172
,
187
,
192
,
203–204
,
209–210
,
214

emergence of,
9
,
11–13
,
168
,
172
,
187
,
204
,
209–210
,
211
,
224
,
228

and Gödelian incompleteness,
50
,
70

and I. J. Good,
72
,
170–71
,
177
,
203–204

and Hobbes,
2–3
,
6–7
,
35
,
50–51

and Leibniz,
7
,
35–36
,
50–51
,
73

and mathematical logic,
7
,
157
,
183

and meaning,
7–8
,
171

paradox of,
182

and Smee,
46–48

and Turing,
53
,
66–67
,
68
,
70–73
,
117

unfulfilled promises of,
121
,
157
,
213–14
,
218

and von Neumann,
108–10
,
125
,
157
,
168

artificial life.
see also
symbiogenesis
;
Tierra

and Barricelli,
111–19
,
121
,
124–25
,
128–30

and Butler,
15
,
24–26
,
28
,
31
,
33–34

cautions against,
24–26
,
33–34
,
127

and Hobbes,
1–2

origins and evolution,
9
,
30
,
32
,
121–23
,
125
,
128–30
,
172
,
177
,
202
,
215–16
,
228

and von Neumann,
76
,
125
,
155
,
175
,
190

Ashby, William Ross (1903–1972),
175–77
,
184

AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph Co.),
9
,
149
,
152
,
180

Atlas (computer, Manchester University),
118
,
119

Atlas (intercontinental ballistic missile),
145

atoms, not indivisible,
198

Aubrey, John (1626–1697)

on Hobbes,
5
,
160

on Hooke,
134
,
135–36

on Petty,
160
,
161

autocatalytic systems,
29
,
113
,
189

automata,
1–2
,
47
,
89
,
157
.
see also under
von Neumann

cellular, anticipated by Lewis Richardson,
197

proliferation of,
2
,
108–110
,
125
,
214

Automatic Computing Engine (ACE),
67–69

automobile, and Erasmus Darwin,
22

Aydelotte, Frank,
95
,
99

B

B-mathematics (Barricelli),
120

Babbage, Charles (1791–1871),
35
,
38–43
,
48

and Augusta Ada, countess of Lovelace,
41

his calculating engines,
38–43
,
59
,
68
,
103

on infinite powers of finite machines,
40
,
42–43

his mechanical notation,
38–39
,
49
,
128

on natural religion,
35
,
41–42

on packet-switched communications,
42
,
81

back-propagation, in neural and financial nets,
169

Backus, John,
122

Bacon, Francis (1561–1626),
132

Bacon, (Friar) Roger (ca. 1214–1292),
212–14

Ballistic Missile Early Warning system,
146

ballistic missiles,
75
,
76
,
144–47
,
180

Ballistic Research Laboratory,
80
,
81

ballistics,
75
,
79–80
,
220

and evolution of digital computing,
75
,
79–82
,
224

and evolution of mind,
82
,
219
,
224

Bamberger, Louis,
95

bandwidth,
132
,
147
,
148
,
216