
Who Is the “Computer”? — Starting from the Relationship Between Computer and Calculator.
This was a commissioned piece for our museum, Read the Exhibition | Hu Yilin: “The Name of ‘Computer’”—Starting from the Relationship between Computer and Calculator. The title I originally gave when I submitted it was later changed by me to “Who Is the Computer?”, but when it was published the original title remained. That’s basically the same thing. Nowadays we distinguish between “computer” and “calculator”: the former corresponds to the English Computer, meaning a general-purpose electronic computer, while the latter corresponds to the English Calculator, usually meaning a small tool designed specifically for arithmetic. Looking further back, we also call Pascal’s adding machine and similar calculating machines “calculators.” But in…
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