A brief history of liquid computers.

A substrate does not have to be solid to compute. It is possible to make a computer purely from a liquid. I demonstrate this using a variety of experimental prototypes where a liquid carries signals, actuates mechanical computing devices and hosts chemical reactions. We show hydraulic mathematical machines that compute functions based on mass transfer analogies. I discuss several prototypes of computing devices that employ fluid flows and jets. They are fluid mappers, where the fluid flow explores a geometrically constrained space to find an optimal way around, e.g. the shortest path in a maze, and fluid logic devices where fluid jet streams interact at the junctions of inlets and results of the computation are represented by fluid jets at selected outlets. Fluid mappers and fluidic logic devices compute continuously valued functions albeit discretized. There is also an opportunity to do discrete operation directly by representing information by droplets and liquid marbles (droplets coated by hydrophobic powder). There, computation is implemented at the sites, in time and space, where droplets collide one with another. The liquid computers mentioned above use liquid as signal carrier or actuator: the exact nature of the liquid is not that important. What is inside the liquid becomes crucial when reaction-diffusion liquid-phase computing devices come into play: there, the liquid hosts families of chemical species that interact with each other in a massive-parallel fashion. I shall illustrate a range of computational tasks, including computational geometry, implementable by excitation wave fronts in nonlinear active chemical medium. The overview will enable scientists and engineers to understand how vast is the variety of liquid computers and will inspire them to design their own experimental laboratory prototypes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Liquid brains, solid brains: How distributed cognitive architectures process information'.

Forensic Identification in the Aftermath of Human Rights Crimes in Chile: A Decentered Computer History.

As computer historians extend the bounds of what constitutes computer history, they must also take care not to write histories that overstate the importance of these technologies. "Decentering" the computer in computer history provides a way for historians to study the role of computers in more domains without exaggerating their importance. Here I illustrate how the use of a computer system for forensic identification formed part of Chile's complicated history of truth, justice, and reconciliation in the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship. While computers are not, and should not be, the central focus of how we understand processes of truth and reconciliation in history, in this case they illuminate the dynamics of how those working within the Chilean government, including its justice system, have approached Chile's history of human rights abuses.

The right to a human in the loop: Political constructions of computer automation and personhood.

Contributing to recent scholarship on the governance of algorithms, this article explores the role of dignity in data protection law addressing automated decision-making. Delving into the historical roots of contemporary disputes between information societies, notably European Union and Council of Europe countries and the United States, reveals that the regulation of algorithms has a rich, culturally entrenched, politically relevant backstory. The article compares the making of law concerning data protection and privacy, focusing on the role automation has played in the two regimes. By situating diverse policy treatments within the cultural contexts from which they emerged, the article uncovers and examines two different legal constructions of automated data processing, one that has furnished a right to a human in the loop that is intended to protect the dignity of the data subject and the other that promotes and fosters full automation to establish and celebrate the fairness and objectivity of computers. The existence of a subtle right across European countries and its absence in the US will no doubt continue to be relevant to international technology policy as smart technologies are introduced in more and more areas of society.

The Renewed Promise of Medical Informatics.

The promise of the field of Medical Informatics has been great and its impact has been significant. In 1999, the Yearbook editors of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) - also the authors of the present paper - sought to assess this impact by selecting a number of seminal papers in the field, and asking experts to comment on these articles. In particular, it was requested whether and how the expectations, represented by these papers, had been fulfilled since their publication several decades earlier. Each expert was also invited to comment on what might be expected in the future. In the present paper, these areas are briefly reviewed again. Where did these early papers have an impact and where were they not as successful as originally expected? It should be noted that the extraordinary developments in computer technology observed in the last two decades could not have been foreseen by these early researchers. In closing, some of the possibilities and limitations of research in medical informatics are outlined in the context of a framework that considers six levels of computer applications in medicine and health care. For each level, some predictions are made for the future, concluded with thoughts on fruitful areas for ongoing research in the field.

Clocks to Computers: A Machine-Based "Big Picture" of the History of Modern Science.

Over the last few decades there have been several calls for a "big picture" of the history of science. There is a general need for a concise overview of the rise of modern science, with a clear structure allowing for a rough division into periods. This essay proposes such a scheme, one that is both elementary and comprehensive. It focuses on four machines, which can be seen to have mediated between science and society during successive periods of time: the clock, the balance, the steam engine, and the computer. Following an extended developmental phase, each of these machines came to play a highly visible role in Western societies, both socially and economically. Each of these machines, moreover, was used as a powerful resource for the understanding of both inorganic and organic nature. More specifically, their metaphorical use helped to construe and refine some key concepts that would play a prominent role in such understanding. In each case the key concept would at some point be considered to represent the ultimate building block of reality. Finally, in a refined form, each of these machines would eventually make its entry in scientific research, thereby strengthening the ties between these machines and nature.

The dawn of the third renaissance in surgery.

In this presidential address, I will share my belief that our proud and noble field stands at the dawn of a great renaissance. I further believe that this is the third such renaissance that has occurred in surgery. As described herein, the first renaissance in surgery occurred during the 1600s, which involved a transformation in operative care unlike anything that had been seen since Roman times. This first renaissance was triggered by tumultuous world events but was spurred on by the invention of the printing press. The second renaissance occurred during the 1980s and was triggered by the invention of the computer, which is of equal significance to the printing press 240 years earlier. I believe that this third renaissance shares with the earlier renaissances its transformative nature and its reaction to turmoil, both in the medical and nonmedical worlds. This is a renaissance driven by science, by creativity, and by innovation­resources that are never in short supply within our great profession.

"Beards, Sandals, and Other Signs of Rugged Individualism": Masculine Culture within the Computing Professions.

Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, male computer experts were able to successfully transform the "routine and mechanical" (and therefore feminized) activity of computer programming into a highly valued, well-paying, and professionally respectable discipline. They did so by constructing for themselves a distinctively masculine identity in which individual artistic genius, personal eccentricity, anti-authoritarian behavior, and a characteristic "dislike of activities involving human interaction" were mobilized as sources of personal and professional authority. This article explores the history of masculine culture and practices in computer programming, with a particular focus on the role of university computer centers as key sites of cultural formation and dissemination.

Before the beginning: the development of tools of the trade.

Before the beginning of the Journal of Child Language in 1974 three technological innovations had set the stage for a fundamental expansion and revision of our understanding of the processes of child language acquisition. Portable audio and video recorders changed both the quantity and quality of data. Computers made it possible to store and search large corpora, to rapidly carry out statistical analyses of the distribution of linguistic forms and their changes over time, and to simulate models of acquisition. This essay is a personal and historical overview of the unexpected consequences of those technological innovations for the study of child language. In looking to the future, another tool, linguistic typology, is essential for building models of language acquisition.

The History of the Data Systems AutoChemist® (ACH) and AutoChemist- PRISMA (PRISMA®): from 1964 to 1986.

OBJECTIVES: This paper presents the history of data system development steps (1964 - 1986) for the clinical analyzers AutoChemist®, and its successor AutoChemist PRISMA® (PRogrammable Individually Selective Modular Analyzer). The paper also partly recounts the history of development steps of the minicomputer PDP 8 from Digital Equipment. The first PDP 8 had 4 core memory boards of 1 K each and was large as a typical oven baking sheet and about 10 years later, PDP 8 was a "one chip microcomputer" with a 32 K memory chip. The fast developments of PDP 8 come to have a strong influence on the development of the data system for AutoChemist. Five major releases of the software were made during this period (1-5 MIACH). RESULTS: The most important aims were not only to calculate the results, but also be able to monitor their quality and automatically manage the orders, store the results in digital form for later statistical analysis and distribute the results to the physician in charge of the patient using thesame computer as the analyzer. Another result of the data system was the ability to customize AutoChemist to handle sample identification by using bar codes and the presentation of results to different types of laboratories. CONCLUSIONS: Digital Equipment launched the PDP 8 just as a new minicomputer was desperately needed. No other known alternatives were available at the time. This was to become a key success factor for AutoChemist. That the AutoChemist with such a high capacity required a computer for data collection was obvious already in the early 1960s. That computer development would be so rapid and that one would be able to accomplish so much with a data system was even suspicious at the time. In total, 75; AutoChemist (31) and PRISMA (44) were delivered Worldwide. The last PRISMA was delivered in 1987 to the Veteran Hospital Houston, TX USA.