Item #28972 Computers and Automata [Methodos offprint]. Claude E. Shannon, Elwood.

Computers and Automata [Methodos offprint]

Milano: Editrice La Fiaccola 1954. Later printing. 115-130 pages. 234 x 188 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 5/8 inches). Printed light green printed wrappers. Tanned pages, light browning to the extremities. “Reprinted by kind permission of the Author and the Editors from the Proceedings of the I.R.E. October 1953." Near Fine. Wraps. [28972]


First published in the famous "Computer Issue" of the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (Vol. 41, 1953, pp. 1234-1241), we are unaware of any IRE offprints of this paper. Thus the Bell Telephone System Monograph series (#2150: March 1954) constitutes the first separate appearance. Reprinted in Methodos [as here], Vol. 6 (1954), pp. 115-130. The Methodos reprint lacks both the sample checker program game and notes by Strachey.

Methodos was a quarterly serial issued by the "Centro italiano di metodologia e analisi del linguaggio" [Italian Center for Language Methodology and Analysis] which survived from 1949-1964, 16 volumes, Numbers 1 thru 62. (OCLC Acc#: 1695345)

"This paper reviews briefly some of the recent developments in the field of automata and nonnumerical computation. A number of typical machines are described, including logic machines, game-playing machines, and learning machines. Some theoretical questions and developments are discussed, such as a comparison of computers and the brain, Turing's formulation of computing machines, and von Neumann's models of self-reproducing machines." (summary, p 130).

"A brief review of developments in the field of automata and non-numerical computation. Included are descriptions of logic machines, game-playing machines, learning machines, Turing's formulation of computing machines, and von Neumann's models of self-reproducing machines. The paper was written for the special computer issue of the Proceedings of the IRE." (Origins of Cyberspace)

In his review of this article for The Journal of Symbolic Logic (Vol 19), Alonzo Church describes it as "...an excellent descriptive non-technical article..."

PROVENANCE: The personal files of Claude E. Shannon (unmarked). There were seven examples of this item in Shannon's files.

REFERENCES:
Sloane and Wyner, "Claude Elwood Shannon Collected Papers," #82
Hook and Norman, "Origins of Cyberspace," #885

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