Alan Kay? --maybe not... I'd venture to say we could go back a little further back And say it was a woman what a surprize :) I'd say it was Ada Lovelace who wrote eloquently about the ways in which digital code could simulate all kinds of media This is discussed at some length in Plant's Zeros and Ones mary On 2/11/04 12:12 PM, "Jonas Heide Smith" <jonas@autofire.dk> wrote:
Jesper,
Who was the first to say that the computer can simulate all former kinds of media?
I believe the honour goes to Alan Kay ("Personal Dynamic Media", 1977):
"...the ability to simulate the details of any descriptive model means that the computer, viewed as a medium itself, can be all other media if the embedding and viewing methods are sufficiently well provided. Moreover, this new “metamedium” is active..."
But you could - I think - call the statement an extension of Alan Turing's description of the computer as a machine which could simulate (or be, if you like) all other machines.
Best, Jonas
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org] On Behalf Of jespert Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 3:50 PM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] a question
Dear list,
Who was the first to say that the computer can simulate all former kinds
of media?
Best Regards Jesper
---------------------------- Mary Bryson, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Human Learning, Development and Instruction Graduate program, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia Research Site: http://www.shecan.com Online C.V.: http://www.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/bryson/cv.html