David Alan Grier: When Computers Were Human (2005)

“Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term “computer” referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology.

Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother’s casual remark, “I wish I’d used my calculus,” hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world.

The book begins with the return of Halley’s comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration.

When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.”

Published by Princeton University Press, 2005
ISBN 0691091579, 9780691091570
411 pages

Key terms:
Mathematical Tables Project, Gertrude Blanch, Karl Pearson, Applied Mathematics Panel, Charles Henry Davis, Halley’s comet, Warren Weaver, Oswald Veblen, Wallace Eckert, Ida Rhodes, Benjamin Peirce, Charles Babbage, ENIAC, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Harvard Observatory, Lyman Briggs, John von Neumann, Bell Telephone Laboratories, human computers, Edmund Halley

Publisher

DJVU (updated on 2012-7-25)

Christopher May (ed.): Key Thinkers for the Information Society (2003)

With the aim of widening current perspectives on the information society, each contributor introduces a particular social theorist and discusses the way in which their insights can be reintroduced into debates regarding the social, political and cultural impact of information and communication technologies. Theorists include: Walter Benjamin; Murray Edeleman; Jacques Ellul; Harold Innes; Lewis Mumford; Karl Polanyi; Eric Elmer Scattachneider and Raymond Williams.

Published by Routledge, 2003
ISBN 0415296722, 9780415296724
194 pages

Key terms:
information society, Lewis Mumford, Walter Benjamin, Harold Innis, megalopolis, Karl Polanyi, technological determinism, information age, digital divide, Wolin, Jacques Ellul, Elmer Eric Schattschneider, industrial revolution, information revolution, Frankfurt School, globalisation, Marxist, Internet, postmodern, history of technology

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2012-8-11)

Peter Manning: Electronic and Computer Music (1985–)

“Peter Manning’s classic text Electronic and Computer Music deals with the development of the medium from its birth to the 21st century. The first section of the book covers electroacoustic music from its beginning at the turn of the century to 1945, the development of post-1945 ‘classical’ studios, development of voltage-controlled technology, and its commercial exploitation in tape works, live electronic music, and the early use of electronics in rock and pop music. Section two, Computer Music, treats the digital revolution from the early experiments during the late 1950s and early 1960s to the advanced systems of today. Emphasizing the functional characteristics of emerging digital technologies and their influence on the creative development of the medium, Manning covers key developments in both commercial and the non-commercial sectors.”

First published by Oxford University Press, New York, 1985.

Third, revised and updated edition
Publisher Oxford University Press, New York, 2004
ISBN 0195144848, 9780195144840
x+474 pages

Key terms:
empreints DIGITALes, electronic music, IRCAM, MIDI, musique concrete, Wergo, CSOUND, timbre, personal computer, MUSICn, computer music, digital-to-analog converter, Apple Macintosh, music workstation, Synclavier, Yamaha, analog synthesizer, ring modulator, Synket, CCRMA

Publisher

Third edition (2004, 30 MB, updated on 2021-4-8)
Fourth edition (2013, added on 2021-4-8)