🚀 go-pugleaf

dab@moxie.moxie.oswego.edu (David Alan Bozak) writes:

>I was appalled that there was NO mention of Atanasoff.  

Risks Digest (comp.risks) 13.38 (10 April) contains a note from
the show's producers on this subject, which I reproduce in full below.

>Maybe disappointed is a better word to describe how I
>feel about sponsor influence over content.

No one has given any evidence to support allegations of sponsor influence,
and it's irresponsible to make such allegations without any evidence.
The PBS show followed the view of the majority of historians, and I find
it hard to criticize them on this point, even though I myself feel that
Mauchly did not give Atanasoff proper credit.

Here's that note from the producers.


  Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 18:17:28 EDT
  From: WGBH-TV (Information Age) <wgbh@MEDIA-LAB.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
  Subject: Re: TV Show Accuracy]

  Out of respect for John V. Atanasoff's efforts with the ABC Computer, "The
  Machine That Changed the World" has been very careful to avoid the term
  "first" in speaking of the ENIAC computer.  Generally, we refer to it as the
  first "working" electronic computer.

  However, the decision NOT to include Atanasoff's computer in the series was
  made only after a great deal of consideration.  There is much debate about
  Atanasoff's machine -- did it ever really work?; could it be considered a
  "programmable, digital, computer" as we defined the computer for the purposes
  of our series?; how does one weigh the pronouncement of a judge against the
  opinion of the majority of the computer community (including historians)
  regarding Eckert and Mauchly's place in computer history versus Atanasoff's?

  Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that the series (with its inevitable
  time constrictions) can only focus of those machines that influenced further
  development in the field.  With that criteria, we could not justify spending
  the large amount of time that would have been necessary to tell the Atanasoff
  story.  In addition, some authors claim that Mauchly "stole" the idea from
  Atanasoff is unproven and without Mauchly to tell his side, we felt that
  exploration of this part of computer history would only lead to the dead end
  of inconclusiveness.

  We understand and appreciate the controversy regarding Atanasoff, but feel
  that our decision was correct.  In the words of Sir Francis Darwin (in 1914):
  "In science, the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to whom
  the idea first occurs.

  Producers, "The Machine That Changed the World"