Kittler - Pynchon - Zuse: Computers during World War Two (Goldstrasz/Pantle)

[Dave Monroe]

Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to al-Qaeda

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no2/article09.html

IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and
America's Most Powerful Corporation

http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 5:09 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
<lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>
>
> At least for the case of Zuse the argument is striking!
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thomas Goldstrasz & Henrik Pantle:
>
> Computers During World War Two
>
> Abstract
>
> ________________________________
>
>
> The Second World War,
>
> according to a well-known theory of the Berlin aesthetic theorist Friedrich
> Kittler, was necessary for the development of the computer. This theory
> forms part of his more general assertion that entertainment devices (i.e.
> media) have always, by nature so to speak, represented `misuse of military
> equipment'. And at first glance, i.e. on a first reading of Grammophon Film
> Typewriter (GFT), his argument seems watertight enough. In an impressive
> style, much inspired by Pynchon, Kittler gives us a description of war as a
> problem of information processing which is essential to the process of human
> media production.
>
> At this point, Bolz's interpretation, depicting war as the father of all
> media, converges with Kittler's (cf. EGU: 130). He has suggested that war
> creates embryonic communication technologies in minds and systems, as well
> as making enough money available to ensure that these children grow big and
> strong (the logic of this analogy states: without Father War, no Children
> Media).
>
> One example used by Kittler to illustrate his the `theory of misuse' for
> WWII is Bletchley Park, the top secret location where English cryptologists
> deciphered the Nazis's machine-generated Enigma codes. The world's first
> theoretical computer scientist, Alan Turing, worked there, applying his
> knowledge and genius to the problems of cryptology and initiating the
> development of the computer in England in the process.
>
>
> Our discovery that the influence of the Second World War
>
> on the development of the computer was more a coincidence than a necessity,
> thus refuting Kittler's theory, was a result of our reading of Konrad Zuse's
> book The Computer - My Life (TCML).
>
> Zuse constructed his computers Z1-Z4 during but in no way due to WWII.
> Contrary to Kittler's claims, the Nazis quite simply missed the opportunity
> of exploiting Zuse's private computer seriously (i.e. with top priority and
> large sums of money) for the solution of their (information) problems.
> Zuse's machines remained civilian equipment throughout WWII, which shows
> that the computer is not a machine of war, at least not by nature.
>
> This independent invention of the computer outside the context of the war
> and of events in England also underlines the need to attribute fatherhood
> not to events but to individuals. The computer had several fathers, two of
> whom were undoubtedly Turing and Zuse, one of whom stood before his
> invention as a private person in civilian clothing.
>
> ________________________________
>
> http://waste.informatik.hu-berlin.de/Diplom/ww2/default_e.html
> http://waste.informatik.hu-berlin.de/Diplom/ww2/zuse_picture.html
>
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l