Giant brains; or, Machines that thinkBerkeley, Edmund Callis
Science
Giant brains; or, Machines that think
Berkeley, Edmund Callis
Computers -- Popular works
produced by the
main connective
is true for the
case
13 7 Large button 1 Man. _Manual pulse_ Input: causes the
Pulse _button_ calc. to go
to the next line
of a truth table
14 7 11-position 1 _kⱼ_ _Connective check_ Output: glows when
dial switch _switch and light_ any specified
connective is
true
15 7 13-position 1 TT “_Truth-table-row-_ Input: causes the
dial switch Row _stop_” _switch_ calc. to stop on
Stop last row of the
the truth table
16 Be- Continuous 1 — _Timing control_ Input: controls the
tween dial knob _knob_ speed at which
6 & 7 and button the calculator
scans rows of
the truth table
Some of the words appearing in this table need to be defined.
_Connective_ here means “AND,” “OR,” “IF ··· THEN,” “IF AND ONLY IF.”
Only these four connectives appear on the machine; others when needed
can be constructed from these. The symbols used for these connectives
in mathematical logic are ∧, ∨, ▲, ▼. These signs serve as labels
for the connective switch points. In this machine, when there is a
connective between two statements, the statement that comes before is
called the _antecedent_ and the statement that comes after is called
the _consequent_.
HOW INFORMATION GOES INTO THE MACHINE
Of the 16 units 13 are input units. They control the setup of the
machine so that it can solve a problem. Of the 13 input units, those
that have the most to do with taking in the problem are shown in Table
12.
Table 12
Name of KIND OF
UNIT SWITCHES MARK SWITCH SWITCH SETTINGS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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