Darwin Among the Machines (57 page)

potential immortality of,
210

premonitions of,
33–34
,
88
,
192
,
210

proliferation of,
10
,
11–12
,
13
,
127
,
184
,
192
,
203
,
205
,
215

and proliferation of software,
126–28
,
189
,
215–16

random, advantages of,
12
,
177
,
151

semantic,
47

telepathic,
203–204

wireless,
205–208

Neumann, John von.
See
von Neumann, John

Neumann, Max,
76

neural networks,
12
,
155–59
,
169
,
175–76
,
177

fault tolerance of,
108
,
156–57
,
176

and game theory,
158–59
,
171

natural selection in,
12
,
175
,
185
,
215
,
219

Ortvay on,
89

and Smee,
46–48

temporal delay in,
169

Turing on,
71

and Turing machine equivalence,
72
,
89–90
,
157

and von Neumann,
89–90
,
108–110
,
155–57

wireless,
203–205

neurology,
45–46
,
175

neurons,
71
,
72
,
89
,
109
,
175
,
177

artificial,
90
,
109
,
205
,
177–78

and ballistic motor control,
81–82
,
219

and collective intelligence,
187
,
204–205
,
209
,
210

pruning of,
12
,
175
,
185
,
215

as purposive systems,
170

statistical nature of,
44–45
,
108
,
156
,
159

neurotransmitters 169

New York Times
,
87–88

New York University,
118

Newcomen, Thomas (1663–1729),
134

Newell, Allen (1927–1992),
178–179

Newman, Maxwell H. A. (1897–1984),
54
,
65–69
,
104

Newton, Isaac (1642–1727),
35
,
36
,
40
,
75
,
134
,
227

Niagara Falls, and F. W. H. Myers,
201

Ninth Bridgewater Treatise
(Babbage),
41–42

Nollet, Abbé Jean Antoine (1700–1770),
139

no-man's-land, World War I,
194

nonlinear systems,
85
,
86
.
see also
complexity
;
self-organizing systems
;
turbulence

nuclear weapons.
see also
Los Alamos

and digital computers 78–79,
82–84
,
92
,
111
,
144

and game theory,
76
,
146
,
155

hydrogen (super) bomb,
78–79
,
82–83
,
92
,
111
,
144–45

intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM),
145–47

strategy,
76
,
144–45
,
146–47
,
181

and survivable communications,
144
,
146–49
,
151–52

and von Neumann,
75–76
,
78
,
83
,
87–88
,
92
,
144

and weather control,
87–88

nucleotides,
113
,
118–19
,
121
,
129
,
185
,
216
,
225
.
see also
DNA
;
RNA

numbers.
see also
arithmetic
;
binary arithmetic
;
computable numbers
;
Gödel numbers
;
Reynolds number

Book of,
142

characteristic, of Leibniz,
38

kingdom of,
32
,
119

natural,
53
,
56

powers of and safety in,
73
,
82
,
150
,
192

prime, and public-key cryptography,
165–66

random,
71
,
114
,
145

self-reproducing,
xii
,
114
,
116
,
121
,
172
.
see also
symbiogenesis

O

obsidian,
x
,
202

Oersted, Hans Christian (1777–1851),
141

Office of Naval Research,
91

Old Testament, Leviathan in,
1
,
2

Olden Farm (Princeton, N. J.),
93
,
97

Oldenburg, Henry (1615?–1677),
36

“On Computable Numbers” (Turing),
58
,
60
,
65
,
68
,
72
,
88

On Distributed Communications
(Baran),
151

operating systems (computer),
10
,
38
,
113–14
,
121–23
,
180
,
189

Oppenheimer, J. Robert (1904–1967),
78–79
,
82
,
91
,
94–95

optical fiber communications,
7
,
8–9
,
203–204
,
207

Opticks
(Newton),
227

Order,
62
,
170
,
222

and disorder, in hydrodynamics,
85

origins of,
29
,
112
,
170
,
177
,
188–89

order codes,
90
,
93
,
105–106
,
121
,
123

Organisms.
see also
artificial life
;
evolution
;
life
;
microorganisms
;
origins of life
;
parasitism
;
symbiogenesis
;
symbiosis

collective,
2–3
,
13
,
27
,
150
,
170
,
175
,
191–92

complexity of,
11–13
,
112
,
117
,
126
,
150
,
181
,
190–92

and machines, comparison with,
100–101
,
181
,
191

multicellular,
13
,
115
,
123
,
160

organizations as,
179
,
183

processors as,
215–16

reliable, from unreliable parts,
44
,
108
,
150

scale of,
7–8
,
174–75
,
186
,
208

Origin of Species
(Darwin),
18
,
19
,
23
,
24
,
116
,
190

origins of life,
9
,
12–13
,
28–32
,
111–13
,
177
,
202
.
see also
symbiogenesis

Origins of Life
(Dyson),
29–30
,
32

Ortvay, Rudolf,
89

OS/360 (IBM 360 operating system),
121–22

Oslo, University of,
119–20

Ouroboros
(Garrett),
226–27

Overlords (of
Childhood's End
),
224

overmind, dangers of,
224

Oxford University,
2
,
63
,
132
,
160

oxygen,
121
,
202

P

packet switching

Babbage on,
42
,
81

origins and development of,
143
,
147–52
,
205–207

proliferation of,
12
,
122

Paley, William (1743–1805),
188–89

Pandemonium
(Selfridge),
72
,
184–85
,
189

pangenesis,
20

panspermia,
28

Parallel Distributed Processing
(Rumelhart and McClelland),
159

parallel processing

in biology,
82
,
110
,
115
,
155
,
159
,
219

and computers,
12
,
86–87
,
108
,
115
,
126–27
,
155
,
197
,
205

parasitism,
12
,
29
,
97
,
114–16
,
120
,
185
,
201
,
223
,
227

and evolution of software,
121–23

and origins of eukaryotic cells,
12
,
29
,
112
,
115

Pascal, Blaise (1623–1666),
36

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
(Babbage),
42

pattern recognition,
10
,
62
,
158
,
184

Patterson, George W.,
59

Payne, Diana,
64

Pehrson, Björn,
133
,
137
,
139

Peirce, Charles Sanders (1839–1914),
58–59

penny post, and Babbage,
42

Pepys, Samuel (1633–1703),
5
,
134

perception,
6
,
51
,
156
,
158
,
184
,
218
,
222

Petty, Charles,
161

Petty, William (1623–1687),
160–62
,
171

phenotype, and distinction from genotype,
30–31
,
117–19

Philco 2000 (transistorized computer),
183

philosophical algebra (Hooke),
135

Philosophical Club (Oxford),
132
,
160

photosynthesis,
170

physics,
50
,
73
,
85
,
125
,
130
,
174
,
197
,
216

Piaget, Jean,
94

Pickard, G. W.,
203

Pilot ACE (computer),
69

pipelining (computational),
84

Pitts, Walter,
72
,
89–90
,
157
,
213

plague (of 1665),
134

plasms (biological and technological),
112

plasticity, of neural and financial networks,
169

plugboards (for programming),
63
,
66
,
81

poker (and game theory),
168

Political Arithmetick
(Petty),
161

political economy,
160
,
162

Polybius (ca. 200–118
B.C.
),
132
,
138
,
143

Pomerene, James,
101
,
102
,
105
,
114

Port Lyttelton (New Zealand),
16
,
32

Post, Emil (1897–1954),
55

Post Office, British,
65
,
69

Potato Plant, Its uses and properties, together with the cause of the present malady
(Smee),
45

Power, D'arcy, on Smee,
48

Preliminary Design of an Experimental Earth-Circling Spaceship
, (RAND),
145

Princeton (N.J.),
xii
,
58
,
92
,
93
,
96
,
99–101
,
107
,
116
,
142

Princeton University,
xi
,
58
,
72
,
78
,
88
,
142
,
155

and IAS,
79
,
96
,
97
,
99
,
107

principle of maximum diversity,
35

Principles of the Human Mind deduced from Physical Laws
(Smee),
46

“Probabilistic Logics and the Synthesis of Reliable Organisms from Unreliable Components” (von Neumann),
44
,
108

probability,
43–44
,
154
.
see also
improbability

Process of Thought Adapted to Words and Language, together with a description of the Relational and Differential Machines
(Smee),
46

processing architectures.
See
computer architecture
;
parallel processing
;
von Neumann architecture

“Processors as Organisms” (Davidge),
215–16

programming, of digital computers.
see also
code and coding
;
languages
;
operating systems
;
software

of Colossus,
66–67
,
206

ecology and evolution of,
9
,
185

early development of,
68
,
83–84
,
90
,
99
,
113
,
122
,
160
,
179