John Graham-Cumming: The greatest machine that never was

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: David J. Kreps Finnemann Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

So the machine I'm going to talk you about

Så den maskine jeg vil tale til jer om

is what I call the greatest machine that never was.

er det jeg kalder den største maskine der aldrig blev til noget.

It was a machine that was never built,

Det var en maskine der aldrig blev bygget,

and yet, it will be built.

og alligevel, vil den blive bygget.

It was a machine that was designed

Det var en maskine der blev bygget

long before anyone thought about computers.

længe før nogen tænkte på computere.

If you know anything about the history of computers,

Hvis man ved noget som helst om computerens historie,

you will know that in the '30s and the '40s,

ved man at der i 30'erne og 40'erne,

simple computers were created

blev bygget simple computere

that started the computer revolution we have today,

der startede den computer revolution vi har i dag,

and you would be correct,

og man ville have ret,

except for you'd have the wrong century.

bortset fra at man ville have fat i det forkerte århundrede.

The first computer was really designed

Den første computer blev faktisk bygget

in the 1830s and 1840s, not the 1930s and 1940s.

i 1830'erne og 1840'erne, ikke 1930'erne og 1940'erne.

It was designed, and parts of it were prototyped,

Den blev bygget, og dele af den var prototyper,

and the bits of it that were built are here

og de dele af der blev bygget er her

in South Kensington.

i South Kensington.

That machine was built by this guy, Charles Babbage.

Den maskine blev bygget af denne fyr, Charles Babbage.

Now, I have a great affinity for Charles Babbage

Nuvel, jeg har en stor forkærlighed for Charles Babbage

because his hair is always completely unkempt like this

fordi hans hår altid er uredt ligesom dette

in every single picture. (Laughter)

på hvert eneste billede. (Latter)

He was a very wealthy man, and a sort of,

Han var en meget rig mand, og en slags,

part of the aristocracy of Britain,

del af aristokratiet i England,

and on a Saturday night in Marylebone,

og en lørdag aften i Marylebone,

were you part of the intelligentsia of that period,

var man en del af intelligentsiaen i den periode,

you would have been invited round to his house

ville man være blevet inviteret til hans hus

for a soiree — and he invited everybody:

til et aftenselskab -- og han inviterede alle:

kings, the Duke of Wellington, many, many famous people —

konger, the Duke of Wellington, mange, mange kendte mennesker --

and he would have shown you one of his mechanical machines.

og han ville have vist en af sine mekaniske maskiner.

I really miss that era, you know, where you could

Jeg savner virkelig den periode, I ved, hvor man ville

go around for a soiree and see a mechanical computer

gå til et aftenselskab og se en mekanisk computer

get demonstrated to you. (Laughter)

blive demonstreret for en. (Latter)

But Babbage, Babbage himself was born

Men Babbage, Babbage selv blev født

at the end of the 18th century,

i slutningen af det 18 århundrede,

and was a fairly famous mathematician.

og var en temmelig kendt matematiker.

He held the post that Newton held at Cambridge,

Han havde den samme stilling som Newton havde ved Cambridge,

and that was recently held by Stephen Hawking.

og for nyligt også var den af Stephen Hawking.

He's less well known than either of them because

Han er mindre kendt end begge to, fordi

he got this idea to make mechanical computing devices

han fik denne ide at lave mekaniske beregnende ting

and never made any of them.

og lavede aldrig nogen af dem.

The reason he never made any of them, he's a classic nerd.

Grunden til han aldrig lavede nogen af dem, han er en klassisk nørd.

Every time he had a good idea, he'd think,

Hver gang han fik en god ide, tænkte han,

"That's brilliant, I'm going to start building that one.

"Det er genialt, jeg vil begynde at bygge den.

I'll spend a fortune on it. I've got a better idea.

Jeg bruger en formue på den. Jeg har en bedre ide.

I'm going to work on this one. (Laughter) And I'm going to do this one."

Jeg vil bygge denne. (Latter) Og jeg vil bygge denne."

He did this until Sir Robert Peel, then Prime Minister,

Han gjorde dette indtil Sir Robert Peel, den forhenværende premierminister,

basically kicked him out of Number 10 Downing Street,

mere eller mindre sparkede ham ud af Downing Street 10,

and kicking him out, in those days, that meant saying,

og sparkede ham ud, dengang, betød at sige,

"I bid you good day, sir." (Laughter)

"Jeg ønsker dem en god dag, Hr." (Latter)

The thing he designed was this monstrosity here,

Den ting han byggede var dette monstrum her,

the analytical engine. Now, just to give you an idea of this,

den analytiske maskine. Nuvel, bare for at give jer en ide om dette,

this is a view from above.

dette er set ovenfra.

Every one of these circles is a cog, a stack of cogs,

Hver eneste af disse cirkler er et tandhjul, en stak tandhjul,

and this thing is as big as a steam locomotive.

og denne ting er lige så stor som et damp lokomotiv.

So as I go through this talk, I want you to imagine

Så mens jeg gennemgår dette foredrag, vil jeg bede jer om at forestille jer

this gigantic machine. We heard those wonderful sounds

denne gigantiske maskine. Vi hørte disse vidunderlige lyde

of what this thing would have sounded like.

af hvordan denne ting kunne have lydt.

And I'm going to take you through the architecture of the machine

Og jeg vil tage jer gennem arkitekturen af denne maskine

— that's why it's computer architecture —

-- det er derfor det er computer arkitektur --

and tell you about this machine, which is a computer.

og fortælle jer om denne maskine, der er en computer.

So let's talk about the memory. The memory

Så lad os tale om hukommelsen. Hukommelsen

is very like the memory of a computer today,

er meget lig den hukommelse en computer har i dag,

except it was all made out of metal,

bortset fra at det var lavet i metal,

stacks and stacks of cogs, 30 cogs high.

stakke og stakke og tandhjul, 30 tandhjul høj,

Imagine a thing this high of cogs,

forestille jeg en ting så høj med tandhjul,

hundreds and hundreds of them,

hundredvis og hundredvis af dem,

and they've got numbers on them.

og der er tal på dem.

It's a decimal machine. Everything's done in decimal.

Det er en maskine. Alt bliver lavet i decimaler.

And he thought about using binary. The problem

Og han tænkte på at bruge binært. Problemet

with using binary is that the machine would have been so

med at bruge binært er at maskinen ville have været så

tall, it would have been ridiculous. As it is, it's enormous.

høj, at det ville have været latterligt. Som det er nu, er den enorm.

So he's got memory.

Så han har hukommelse.

The memory is this bit over here.

Hukommelsen er den del herovre.

You see it all like this.

I kan se det hele sådan her.

This monstrosity over here is the CPU, the chip, if you like.

Dette monstrum herovre er CPU'en, chippen, om man vil.

Of course, it's this big.

Selvfølgelig, er den stor.

Completely mechanical. This whole machine is mechanical.

Fuldstændig mekanisk. Hele denne maskine er mekanisk.

This is a picture of a prototype for part of the CPU

Dette er et billede af en prototype for en del af CPU'en

which is in the Science Museum.

hvilket er i Science Museum.

The CPU could do the four fundamental functions of arithmetic --

CPU'en kunne lave de fire fundamentale funktioner i

so addition, multiplication, subtraction, division --

så addere, multiplicere, subtrahere og dividere --

which already is a bit of a feat in metal,

hvilket allerede er noget af en bedrift i metal,

but it could also do something that a computer does

men den kunne også noget som en computer gør

and a calculator doesn't:

og en lommeregner ikke gør:

this machine could look at its own internal memory and make a decision.

denne maskine kunne kigge på sin egen interne hukommelse og tage en beslutning.

It could do the "if then" for basic programmers,

Den kunne lave "if then" for basic programmørerne,

and that fundamentally made it into a computer.

og det gjorde den fundamentalt til en computer.

It could compute. It couldn't just calculate. It could do more.

Den kunne beregne. Den kunne ikke kun regne. Den kunne gøre mere.

Now, if we look at this, and we stop for a minute,

Hvis vi nu kigger på dette, og vi stopper op et øjeblik,

and we think about chips today, we can't

og vi tænker på chips i dag, kan vi ikke

look inside a silicon chip. It's just so tiny.

kigge ind i en chip. Den er bare så lille.

Yet if you did, you would see something

Men hvis man gjorde, ville man se noget

very, very similar to this.

meget, meget lig dette.

There's this incredible complexity in the CPU,

Der er en utrolig kompleksitet i en CPU,

and this incredible regularity in the memory.

og en utrolig regularitet i hukommelsen.

If you've ever seen an electron microscope picture,

Hvis man nogensinde har set et elektron mikroskop billede,

you'll see this. This all looks the same,

ville man se dette. Det ser alt sammen ens ud,

then there's this bit over here which is incredibly complicated.

så er der denne del herovre der er utrolig kompliceret.

All this cog wheel mechanism here is doing is what a computer does,

Alle disse tandhjuls mekanismer her, gør alt det en computer gør,

but of course you need to program this thing, and of course,

men selvfølgelig skal man programmere denne ting, og selvfølgelig,

Babbage used the technology of the day

brugte Babbage datidens teknologi

and the technology that would reappear in the '50s, '60s and '70s,

og teknologien der ville dukke op i 50'erne, 60'erne og 70'erne,

which is punch cards. This thing over here

hvilket er hulkort. Denne ting herovre

is one of three punch card readers in here,

er en af tre hulkorts læsere,

and this is a program in the Science Museum, just

og dette program i Science Museum,

not far from here, created by Charles Babbage,

ikke langt herfra, lavet af Charles Babbage,

that is sitting there — you can go see it —

som sidder der -- man kan tage hen og se det --

waiting for the machine to be built.

ventende på at maskinen bliver bygget.

And there's not just one of these, there's many of them.

Og der er ikke kun en af disse, der er mange af dem.

He prepared programs anticipating this would happen.

Han klargjorde programmer i forventning om at det ville ske.

Now, the reason they used punch cards was that Jacquard,

Grunden til at de brugte hulkort, var at Jacquard,

in France, had created the Jacquard loom,

i Frankrig, havde skabt Jacquard væven,

which was weaving these incredible patterns controlled by punch cards,

der vævede disse utrolige mønstre kontrolleret af hulkortene,

so he was just repurposing the technology of the day,

så han genanvendte bare datidens teknologi,

and like everything else he did, he's using the technology

og ligesom alt andet han gjorde, brugte han teknologien

of his era, so 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, cogs, steam,

fra hans tid, så 1830'erne, 1840'erne, 1850'erne, tandhjul, damp,

mechanical devices. Ironically, born the same year

mekaniske ting. Ironisk nok, født det samme år

as Charles Babbage was Michael Faraday,

som Charles Babbage var Michael Faraday,

who would completely revolutionize everything

der fuldstændig ville revolutionere alt

with the dynamo, transformers, all these sorts of things.

med dynamoen, transformeren, alle den slags ting.

Babbage, of course, wanted to use proven technology,

Babbage, selvfølgelig, ville bruge disse afprøvede teknologier,

so steam and things.

så damp og den slags.

Now, he needed accessories.

Men han havde brug for tilbehør.

Obviously, you've got a computer now.

Åbenlyst, har man en computer nu.

You've got punch cards, a CPU and memory.

Man har hulkort, en CPU og hukommelse.

You need accessories you're going to come with.

Man har brug for tilbehør som man selv kommer med.

You're not just going to have that,

Det er ikke noget man bare har.

So, first of all, you had sound. You had a bell,

Så, for det første, havde man lyd. Man havde en klokke,

so if anything went wrong — (Laughter) —

og hvis noget gik galt -- (Latter) --

or the machine needed the attendant to come to it,

eller maskinen havde brug for at operatøren kom forbi,

there was a bell it could ring. (Laughter)

var der en lille klokke der kunne ringe. (Latter)

And there's actually an instruction on the punch card

Og der er faktisk en instruktion på hulkortet

which says "Ring the bell." So you can imagine this "Ting!"

der siger "Ring med klokken". Så man kan forestille sig dette "Ting!"

You know, just stop for a moment, imagine all those noises,

I ved, man stopper et øjeblik, forestil jer alle disse lyde,

this thing, "Click, clack click click click,"

denne ting, "Klik, klak klik klik klik",

steam engine, "Ding," right? (Laughter)

damp maskine, "Ding", ikke? (Latter)

You also need a printer, obviously, and everyone needs a printer.

Man har også brug for en printer, selvfølgelig, og alle har brug for en printer.

This is actually a picture of the printing mechanism for

Dette er faktisk et billede af printe mekanismen for

another machine of his, called the Difference Engine No. 2,

en anden af hans maskiner, kaldet the Difference Engine No. 2,

which he never built, but which the Science Museum

som han aldrig byggede, men det gjorde the Science Museum

did build in the '80s and '90s.

i 80'erne og 90'erne.

It's completely mechanical, again, a printer.

Det er komplet mekanisk, igen, en printer.

It prints just numbers, because he was obsessed with numbers,

Den printer kun numre, fordi han var besat af numre,

but it does print onto paper, and it even does word wrapping,

men den printer på papir, og den kan endda lave orddeling,

so if you get to the end of the line, it goes around like that.

så hvis man kommer til enden af linjen, kommer den rundt på den måde.

You also need graphics, right?

Man har også brug for grafik, ikke?

I mean, if you're going to do anything with graphics,

Jeg mener, hvis man skal gøre noget som helst med grafik,

so he said, "Well, I need a plotter. I've got a big piece of paper

så han sagde, "Jamen, jeg har brug for en plotter. Jeg har et stort stykke papir

and an ink pen and I'll make it plot."

og en fyldepen så jeg laver en plotter."

So he designed a plotter as well,

Så han byggede også en plotter,

and, you know, at that point, I think he got pretty much

og, I ved, på det tidspunkt, tror jeg han fik lavet

a pretty good machine.

en temmelig god maskine.

Along comes this woman, Ada Lovelace.

Så kommer der denne kvinde, Ada Lovelace, forbi.

Now, imagine these soirees, all these great and good comes along.

Forestil jeg nu disse aftenselskaber, alle de store og vigtige kommer med.

This lady is the daughter of the mad, bad

Denne dame er datteren af den gale, slemme,

and dangerous-to-know Lord Byron,

og farlige at kende Lord Byron,

and her mother, being a bit worried that she might have

og hendes mor, værende lidt bekymret over at hun måske

inherited some of Lord Byron's madness and badness,

har arvet noget af Lord Byrons galskab og slemhed,

thought, "I know the solution: Mathematics is the solution.

tænkte, "Jeg kender løsningen: Matematik er løsningen.

We'll teach her mathematics. That'll calm her down."

Vi lærer hende matematik. Det beroliger hende."

(Laughter) Because of course,

(Latter) Fordi der har selvfølgelig,

there's never been a mathematician that's gone crazy,

aldrig været en matematiker der er blevet gal,

so, you know, that'll be fine. (Laughter)

så, I ved, det bliver godt. (Latter)

Everything'll be fine. So she's got this mathematical training,

Alt bliver godt. Så hun har denne matematiske træning,

and she goes to one of these soirees with her mother,

and hun går til en af disse aftenselskaber med hendes mor,

and Charles Babbage, you know, gets out his machine.

og Charles Babbage, I ved, finder denne maskine frem.

The Duke of Wellington is there, you know,

The Duke of Wellington er der, I ved,

get out the machine, obviously demonstrates it,

finder maskinen frem, demonstrerer den selvfølgelig,

and she gets it. She's the only person in his lifetime, really,

og hun forstår det. Hun er den eneste person i hans livstid, faktisk,

who said, "I understand what this does,

der sagde, "Jeg forstår hvad den gør,

and I understand the future of this machine."

og jeg forstår fremtiden af denne maskine."

And we owe to her an enormous amount because we know

Og vi skylder hende en enorm masse, fordi vi ved

a lot about the machine that Babbage was intending to build

en masse om den maskine som Babbage ville bygge

because of her.

på grund af hende.

Now, some people call her the first programmer.

Nuvel, nogle mennesker kalder hende den første programmør.

This is actually from one of -- the paper that she translated.

Det er faktisk fra en af -- det papir hun oversatte.

This is a program written in a particular style.

Det er et program skrevet i en bestemt stil.

It's not, historically, totally accurate that she's the first programmer,

Det er ikke, historisk, total nøjagtigt at hun er den første programmør,

and actually, she did something more amazing.

og faktisk, gjorde hun noget endnu mere utroligt.

Rather than just being a programmer,

I stedet for bare at være en programmør,

she saw something that Babbage didn't.

så hun noget som Babbage ikke så.

Babbage was totally obsessed with mathematics.

Babbage var total besat med matematik.

He was building a machine to do mathematics,

Han byggede en maskine til at lave matematik,

and Lovelace said, "You could do more than mathematics

og Lovelave sagde, "Man kunne lave mere end matematik

on this machine." And just as you do,

på denne maskine". Og ligesom man gør,

everyone in this room already's got a computer on them

alle i dette lokale har en computer på sig,

right now, because they've got a phone.

lige nu, fordi de har en telefon.

If you go into that phone, every single thing in that phone

Hvis man går ind i den telefon, er hver eneste ting i den telefon

or computer or any other computing device

eller computer, eller en hvilken som helst anden databehandlings maskine

is mathematics. It's all numbers at the bottom.

er matematik. Det er i sidste ende alt sammen tal.

Whether it's video or text or music or voice, it's all numbers,

Hvad enten det er video eller tekst eller tale, det er alt sammen numre,

it's all, underlying it, mathematical functions happening,

det er alt sammen, grundliggende, sker der matematiske funktioner,

and Lovelace said, "Just because you're doing

og Lovelace sagde, "Bare fordi man laver

mathematical functions and symbols

matematiske funktioner og symboler

doesn't mean these things can't represent

betyder det ikke at ting kan repræsentere

other things in the real world, such as music."

andre ting i den virkelige verden, som musik".

This was a huge leap, because Babbage is there saying,

Dette var et kæmpe spring, fordi Babbage siger der,

"We could compute these amazing functions and print out

"Vi kunne beregne disse fantastiske funktioner og printe

tables of numbers and draw graphs," — (Laughter) —

tabeller med numre og og tegne grafer," -- (Latter) --

and Lovelace is there and she says, "Look,

og Lovelace er der og siger, "Hør engang,

this thing could even compose music if you

denne ting kunne endda udarbejde musik hvis man

told it a representation of music numerically."

numerisk fortalte den en repræsentation af musik."

So this is what I call Lovelace's Leap.

Så dette er hvad jeg kalder Lovelaces spring.

When you say she's a programmer, she did do some,

Når man siger hun er en programmør, hun lavede noget,

but the real thing is to have said the future is going to be

men den rigtige ting er at sagde at fremtiden vil blive

much, much more than this.

meget, meget mere end dette.

Now, a hundred years later, this guy comes along,

Nu, hundrede år senere, kommer denne fyr,

Alan Turing, and in 1936, and invents the computer all over again.

Alan Turing, og i 1936, og opfinder computeren om igen.

Now, of course, Babbage's machine was entirely mechanical.

Men, selvfølgelig, var Babbages maskine var komplet mekanisk.

Turing's machine was entirely theoretical.

Turings maskine var komplet teoretisk.

Both of these guys were coming from a mathematical perspective,

Begge disse fyre kom fra en matematisk baggrund,

but Turing told us something very important.

men Turing fortalte os noget meget vigtigt.

He laid down the mathematical foundations

Han fastlagde de matematiske grundpiller

for computer science, and said,

for computer videnskaben, og sagde,

"It doesn't matter how you make a computer."

"Det er lige meget hvordan man laver en computer."

It doesn't matter if your computer's mechanical,

Det er lige meget om ens computer er mekanisk,

like Babbage's was, or electronic, like computers are today,

ligesom Babbages var, eller elektronisk, ligesom computere er i dag,

or perhaps in the future, cells, or, again,

eller måske i fremtiden, celler, eller, igen,

mechanical again, once we get into nanotechnology.

mekaniske igen, når vi begynder med nanoteknologi.

We could go back to Babbage's machine

Vi kunne gå tilbage til Babbages maskine

and just make it tiny. All those things are computers.

og bare lave den lille. Alle disse ting er computere.

There is in a sense a computing essence.

Der er med andre ord en beregnende kerne.

This is called the Church–Turing thesis.

Dette er kaldet Church-Turing tesen.

And so suddenly, you get this link where you say

Og så pludselig, får man dette link hvor man siger

this thing Babbage had built really was a computer.

denne ting Babbage byggede faktisk var en computer.

In fact, it was capable of doing everything we do today

Faktisk, var den i stand til at gøre alt vi gør i dag

with computers, only really slowly. (Laughter)

med computere, bare virkelig langsomt. (Latter)

To give you an idea of how slowly,

For at give jer en ide om hvor langsomt,

it had about 1k of memory.

havde den cirka 1k hukommelse.

It used punch cards, which were being fed in,

Den brugte hulkort, som blev stukket ind,

and it ran about 10,000 times slower the first ZX81.

og den kørte omkring 10.000 gange langsommere end den første ZX81.

It did have a RAM pack.

Den havde en RAM pakke.

You could add on a lot of extra memory if you wanted to.

Man kunne sætte en masse ekstra hukommelse på, hvis man ville.

(Laughter) So, where does that bring us today?

(Latter) Så, hvor får det os hen i dag?

So there are plans.

Så her er planerne.

Over in Swindon, the Science Museum archives,

Ovre i Swindon, the Science Museum arkiverne,

there are hundreds of plans and thousands of pages

der er hundredvis af planer og tusindvis af sider

of notes written by Charles Babbage about this analytical engine.

med noter, skrevet af Charles Babbage omkring denne analytiske maskine.

One of those is a set of plans that we call Plan 28,

En af disse, er et sæt planer som vi kalder Plan 28,

and that is also the name of a charity that I started

og det er også navnet på en velgørende organisation som jeg startede

with Doron Swade, who was the curator of computing

med Doron Swade, der var IT kuratoren

at the Science Museum, and also the person who drove

ved the Science Museum, og også personen der drev

the project to build a difference engine,

projektet til at bygge en difference maskine,

and our plan is to build it.

og vores plan er at bygge den.

Here in South Kensington, we will build the analytical engine.

Her i South Kensington, vil vi bygge den analytiske maskine.

The project has a number of parts to it.

Projektet består af nogle forskellige dele.

One was the scanning of Babbage's archive.

Et af dem var at scanne Babbages arkiv.

That's been done. The second is now the study

Det er sket. Det andet er nu at studere

of all of those plans to determine what to build.

alle disse planer for at afgøre hvad vi skal bygge.

The third part is a computer simulation of that machine,

Den tredje del er en computer simulation af den maskine,

and the last part is to physically build it at the Science Museum.

og den sidste del er fysisk at bygge den ved the Science Museum.

When it's built, you'll finally be able to understand how a computer works,

Når den er bygget, vil man endelig forstå hvordan en computer virker,

because rather than having a tiny chip in front of you,

fordi i stedet for at have en lillebitte chip foran sig,

you've got to look at this humongous thing and say, "Ah,

skal man kigge på denne enorme ting og sige, "Ah,

I see the memory operating, I see the CPU operating,

jeg kan se hukommelsen arbejde, jeg kan se CPU'en arbejde

I hear it operating. I probably smell it operating." (Laughter)

jeg kan høre den arbejde. Jeg lugter sikkert den arbejder." (Latter)

But in between that we're going to do a simulation.

Men i mellem det kommer vi til at lave en simulation.

Babbage himself wrote, he said,

Babbage skrev selv, han sagde,

as soon as the analytical engine exists,

så snart den analytiske maskine eksisterer,

it will surely guide the future course of science.

vil den helt sikkert guide den fremtidige kurs for videnskab.

Of course, he never built it, because he was always fiddling

Selvfølgelig, byggede han den aldrig, fordi han altid fiflede

with new plans, but when it did get built, of course,

med nye planer, men da den blev bygget, selvfølgelig,

in the 1940s, everything changed.

i 1940'erne, ændrede den alt.

Now, I'll just give you a little taste of what it looks like

Nu vil jeg bare give jer en lille forsmag på hvordan den ser ud

in motion with a video which shows

i bevægelse, med en video der viser

just one part of the CPU mechanism working.

bare en del af CPU mekanismen der arbejder.

So this is just three sets of cogs,

Så dette er kun tre sæt tandhjul,

and it's going to add. This is the adding mechanism

og den vil addere. Dette er den adderende mekanisme

in action, so you imagine this gigantic machine.

i aktion, så man forestiller sig denne enorme maskine.

So, give me five years.

Så, giv mig fem år.

Before the 2030s happen, we'll have it.

Inden 2030'erne sker, har vi den.

Thank you very much. (Applause)

Mange tak. (Bifald)