Stephen Wolfram remembers Ed Fredkin (1934-2023)
Simson Garfinkel
LinkedIn Influencer ? Chief Scientist @BasisTech, Lecturer @Harvard
Ed Fredkin (1934-2023) was one of the world's first computer programmers, and created what was arguably the world's second AI startup. He was also the director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science.
Fredkin is also partially responsible for the birth of quantum computing, as he is the person who taught computing to Richard Feynman and asked Feynman to speak at the 1981 conference where Feynman proposed the idea of quantum computing. (Read my article about the conference here.)
Fredkin never graduated college. He ran out of money and enlisted in the Air Force and became a pilot. Later he was trained to be a radar interceptor operator. Fredkin said it was sort of like being an air traffic controller, except the goal was to have the two planes meet.
After computers were invented, the Air Force sent Fredkin to MIT to learn how to program computers, with the goal of using them for some kind of air defense system. Fredkin became one of the world's first master programmers.
Fredkin convinced BBN to purchase its first computer. He then arranged for BBN to hire Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy as consultants.
Later, Fredkin became intrigued by the idea of digital physics—that the universe might actually be a digital computer, and that all of the quantum physics wave equations might have digital counterparts.
I got to interview Fredkin for my book Law and Policy for the Quantum Age, in which I tell some of Fredkin's story.
Now Stephen Wolfram has written a book-length retrospective of Fredkin's life and work, complete with many historic photos, printouts, animations, and many, many stories, now all assembled in a single place.
I highly recommend Stephen's article.
IT Consultant at Independent Consultant
1 年Simson Garfinkel an excellent article which gave me a noetic perspective of Fredkin. However, I believe that the job he held in the Air Force would be “Radar Intercept Operator” which as you said would be the opposite of an “Air Traffic Controller”. The “RIO” was I believe the second seat on fighter bombers such as the F-4 and F-105. Nowadays this is handled by an AWACS (E-3 Sentry) which has a large swath of the airspace covered and managed for the multiple platforms in operation. It is amazing how many people have been reduced from a bomber crew over time due to advances in technology and distribution of effort.
Stealth Mode
1 年Thanks for sharing that story.
Team Builder, Startup Cofounder and App Store Inventor
1 年Marvin Minsky was at MIT and invited me into his media labs when I was just a child. (My mother was a professor at MIT) Marvin lured me by saying "we have lots of parts, chips you might liberate" -- even as an 8 year old, I understood he meant FREE ICs! And they had bags of memory and processors and breadboards! It was heaven! We learned the LOGO language and drive mechanical turtle robots in a future fantasy land that really was my start in computers.
AI @ MSFT / Laws of Simplicity + How To Speak Machine / LinkedIn Top US Influencer
1 年Terrific read!
Computational Engineer
1 年Met Professor Fredkin RIP once, in 1972 when he was head of MIT Project MAC and I was a member of his research staff. He picked me up in the parking lot outside 545 Tech Square in his Maserati Citroen. It had a cool hydraulic suspension. He was a swashbuckling entrepreneur with his own Caribbean island. I confirmed that I was leaving MIT to join Xerox Parc. He wished me well. RIP