Unpredictability. see also weather prediction
of mind, 9, 35, 45, 72–73, 109–110
of software, 124, 180, 190
Usefulnesse of Mechanical Disciplines to Natural Philosophy (Boyle), 75
utility function (game theory), 158, 170
V
vacuum tubes, 10, 39, 44, 65, 81, 94, 98, 103, 108, 121, 179
Vail, Alfred, 142
value, and purposive systems, 158, 164–65, 167, 170
Veblen, Oswald (1880–1960), 79, 96, 102
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (Chambers), 27, 190
viruses, 113, 116, 117, 200–201
viscosity
computational, 110
fluid, and Reynolds number, 84
Visicalc, 122
vision, 46, 48, 159
Volta, Alessandro (1745–1827), 141
von Neumann, John (1903–1957), 75–80, 83–85, 87–92, 93, 106–110, 153–58
and artificial intelligence, 108–110, 125, 157, 168
on bombs and computers, 75, 78, 82–83, 92, 107, 153
and complexity and self-organization, 84–85, 108–110, 154–55, 157–58, 175, 177–78, 190
on the computer and the brain, 89–90, 108–110, 155–157
and computer networking, 88, 144
and distinction between intelligence and logic, 157, 182–83
and economics, 76, 77, 153–58, 168, 171
and EDVAC, 90–91, 98
and ENIAC, 82–83
and game theory, 76, 77, 89, 146, 153–58, 171, 185
on Gödelian logic and self-reproducing systems, 190
and hydrodynamics, 84–85, 107, 110
on human-machine systems, 179
and IAS computer, 91, 93, 98–102, 106–107, 121, 153
and IBM, 91
on information theory, 110, 153, 155, 171
and mathematical logic, 58, 78, 153, 154, 157
and military technology and strategy, 75–76, 78, 80, 82–83, 91–92, 144, 146
on mind, 77, 109, 110, 155–56, 171, 176
and neural networks, 89, 108–110, 155–58
on science, society, and moral judgment, 76, 79
on the statistical language of the brain, 44–45, 156–58, 168, 225
his theory of self-reproducing automata, 32, 76, 77, 108–109, 125, 175, 214
and Turing, 88–89
on the universe as a punched paper tape, 72, 143–44
and weather prediction, 87–88, 107
on Wiener’s Cybernetics, 98
von Neumann architecture, 68, 98, 107, 108–109, 144, 157, 183
Von Neumann, Nicholas, 77
W
wafer, silicon, 8, 202, 214
Waller, Richard, on Hooke, 134–35
Ware, Willis H., 83, 98, 100–102, 104, 148
watches, and the argument from design, 116, 186, 189
Watson, William, 139
Watt, James (1736–1839), 21, 22
Way of All Flesh, The (Butler), 17
weather prediction
and development of digital computers, 85–88
and IAS computer, 87–88, 107
and Lewis Richardson, 86–87, 88, 110, 196–97
by massively-parallel computation, 86, 110, 197
and weather control, 87–88
Weather Prediction by Numerical Process (Richardson), 86, 197
Weber, Wilhelm E., 141
Wedgwood, Josiah (1730–1795), 21
Wells, H. G. (1866–1946), 10–11, 209
Western Union, 142
Weyl, Hermann, 96
Wheatstone, Charles (1802–1875), 143
“Where Is Fancy Bred” (McCulloch), 213
Whirlwind (computer), 144, 180
“Why do people think computers can’t?” (Minsky), 7
Wiener, Norbert (1894–1964), 6, 79, 86, 98, 100–101, 170
Wigner, Eugene P., 77
Wilberforce, Bishop Samuel (1805–1873), 4, 116
wilderness, 50, 225, 228
Wilkes, Maurice, 124
Wilkins, John (1614–1672), 132–33, 143, 160, 166, 225–26
Wilkinson, J. H., 69
William of Malmesbury (1096?–1143), 212
Williams tube (memory), 104–105
Williams, Frederick C., 104
Williams, J. D. (game theorist), 155
Williams, Sir Joshua, 17
Wilson, Edmund B., 112
wireless. See radio
wisdom, 72, 159, 214, 228
Womersly, J. R., 68
Wong, S. Y., 107
Woolf, Harry, 94
word processors, 214
World Brain (Wells), 10–11
World Wide Web, 33, 170, 214–16
Wrens (Women’s Royal Navy Service), 63, 66
World War I, 62, 79, 86, 193–98, 220–21
World War II, 9–10, 63–67, 79–81, 144, 175, 221
Z
zero-sum game, defined, 154
Zoonomia (Erasmus Darwin), 19
Zworykin, Vladimir (1889–1982), 85, 87, 99, 104–105
Zygalski, Henryk, 64
Darwin Among the Machines Page 41