![]() Second, that the history of computation is exploratory and wild, rather than focused and imitational. We lose two crucial facts about computation when adopting this view: First, that computation is an inherently material process, rather than an ideal-logical construction. Footnote 1 On this belief, one is inclined to view automation as an attempt to reconstruct the reasoning capacities of formal, human constructed systems, like the lambda calculus. This is ignored by the common view, that Turing is the father of computer science. Their research focused on the exploration of the capabilities of automatic machines. By looking at this history, we can quite readily tell that the main interest of the artists and engineers who worked on these machines was first and foremost the question of automation. ![]() Computational machines, and automata more generally, have enjoyed a long history: From the calculators of Pascal, Hobbes and Leibniz, through Erycius Puteanus’ poetry composition automaton, Babbadge’s Analytic and Difference Engines, to modern computation and communication networks. ![]()
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