In existographies, Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) (CR:4) was an American electrical engineer noted for []
Overview
In 1931, Bush and Harold Hazen built a differential analyzer (Ѻ), as done earlier by James Thomson (1876) and Gustave Coriolis (1836).
In Sep 1940, Bush, of note, turned down Norbert Wiener’s proposal to build a binary digital computer. [1] Bush declined to provide NDRC funding for it on the grounds that he did not believe that it could be completed before the end of the war. The supporters of digital computers were disappointed at the decision, which they attributed to a preference for outmoded analog technology. Nearly three years later (Jun, 1943) the Army provided $500,000 to build the computer, which became ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer.
Quotes
The following are noted quotes:
“In these days, when there is a tendency to specialize so closely, it is well for us to be reminded that the possibilities of being at once broad and deep did not pass with Leonardo da Vinci or even Benjamin Franklin. Men of our profession — we teachers — are bound to be impressed with the tendency of youths of strikingly capable minds to become interested in one small corner of science and uninterested in the rest of the world.... It is unfortunate when a brilliant and creative mind insists upon living in a modern monastic cell.”
— Vannevar Bush (c.1930), told to a group of MIT professors [2]
“Apparently, Shannon is a genius.”
— Vannevar Bush (1939), written comment [3]
References
1. Zachary, G. Pascal (1997). Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century (pg. 226-27). The Free Press.
2. Soni, Jimmy. (2017). “10,000 Hours with Claude Shannon: How a Genius Thinks, Works, and Lives” (Ѻ), The Mission, Jul 20.
3. Poundstone, William. (2005). Fortune’s Formula: the Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System that Beat the Casinos and Wall Street (pgs. 15, 17, 148-49; Bush quote, pg. 21; Thorp, pgs. 38-40). Macmillan.
External links
● Vannevar Bush – Wikipedia.
