🚀 go-pugleaf

Speaking of computer museums, how many are there?  I have been to
the one in Boston myself, and have heard that there are similar
collections in the Smithsonian and someplace in London.  Any
others?

While I strongly approve of the idea, I found the Computer Museum
in Boston to be a bit dull.  All of the displays were set up and
labeled for computer-illiterates.  None of the dinosaurs on
display were actually working, and they were described in only
the most general terms.  The room with working computers featured
equipment that was neither state-of-the-art nor old enough to be
interesting for its own sake, and all of the programs running
were either games or "This is a word-processor!" type stuff.  The
most interesting item on display was Danny Hillis's tick-tack-toe
computer made out of Tinkertoys.  Of course, it was sealed away
so that no one could touch it.

Imagine going to a museum of old cars where all the displays had
labels like "This is a steering wheel,"  "This is the engine, it
makes the car go!"  After wandering around the old heaps you get
to go outside and see a real 88 Nissan or VW Beetle actually in
operation!  That's what the computer museum is like.

I realize that trying to keep a vacuum tube monster operating is
far beyond the budget and capabilities of any museum.  But I
think they could make some good displays with things like working
papertape readers, hands-on elementary logic circuits, timelines,
and exhibits designed to show just how far computing capabilities
have come since the early days.  Instead of letting the kids play
games they could run on a Nintendo, why not let them type a few
of their own punched cards?  Use a slide rule?  Run an "assembly
language" program? (I'm thinking something like Core Wars, here.)
Wire a simple plug board?  Talk to a Lisp interpreter?  Run a
10-line Fortran 66 program?  (Remember, most visitors have never
seen any programming language except BASIC, but I assume that
many or most have used PC's.)  Debug an adaptive mesh Godunov
scheme written in Intercal?  (Maybe this is a little unrealistic.)

Seriously, though, it might be possible to write an interesting
fluid flow demo where visitors could position objects in the flow
with a mouse and then watch the machine plot streamlines around
the obstacles.  With conformal mapping you can compute potential
flows in a few seconds on a Sun 3/50, but for more interesting
flows we'll have to wait a few years before we can do it in real
time.  How about letting people position planets and stars with
a mouse and then watch Newton's Laws do their stuff?

Well, enough babbling.  It just seems a pity to me that they took
a great idea and then dumbed it down far enough to insult the
intelligence of even a PC-literate.

Louis Howell

#include <std.disclaimer>