Obama Debate Gaffe – The U.S. Government Invented the Computer
Quick takeaway from the 2nd presidential debate – Obama claimed specifically that U.S. government invented the computer, and Obama was very wrong. The computer was developed over a long period of time, and by most historical accounts trace back to Europe with British and German inventors in the late 19th and early 20th century for the conceptual idea of a computer. For a functioning machine, most historical accounts point to a Iowa State University professor and his graduate student:
“I have always taken the position that there is enough credit for everyone in the invention and development of the electronic computer” – John Atanasoff to reporters.
Professor John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry built the world’s first electronic-digital computer at Iowa State University between 1939 and 1942. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer represented several innovations in computing, including a binary system of arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative memory, and a separation of memory and computing functions.
Neither CNN, MSNBC nor Fox News have mentioned this so far. We’ll see if it develops in the days to come.
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[...] you happen to notice Barack Obama’s biggest gaffe? He said the govenment invented the internet. Hat tip to Centrist Net Blog. Election 2008, [...]
It looks like he spent too much time with Mr. Gore. Obama must be confusing Internet with computers.
Let me add some historical information.
Babbage:
Charles Babbage, FRS (December 26, 1791 London, England – October 18, 1871 Marylebone, London, England)[2] was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991 a perfectly functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage’s original plans. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage’s machine would have worked. Nine years later, the Science Museum completed the printer Babbage had designed for the difference engine, an astonishingly complex device for the 19th century. Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage
Since Obama knows a lot about WWII, his uncle might have met Atanasoff:By 1945 the U.S. Navy, too, had decided to build a large scale computer, on the advice of John von Neumann. Atanasoff was put in charge of the project, and he asked Mauchly to help with job descriptions for the necessary staff. However, Atanasoff was also given the responsibility for designing acoustic systems for monitoring atomic bomb tests. That job was made the priority, and by the time he returned from the testing at Bikini Atoll in July 1946, the NOL computer project was shut down due to lack of progress, again on the advice of von Neumann.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atanasoff
Obama’s people might try to spin it, along the above lines, but it is clear that the government did not invent the computer.
You’re perfectly right in raising this question.
Poor Mr. Obama: he does not really know about Holocaust, and now about computers.
[...] other blogger’s comments about this gaffe here and here ▶▼ View 1 Comment /* 0) { jQuery(‘#comments’).show(”, [...]
I noticed it. But I also knew what he was talking about. He convoluted the development of the internet with the development of the computer. While in essence the computer was basically a “glorified” typewriter before the internet and software.
All of these things were created at different times but Obama basically accredited all to the government based on the arpanet.
a correction, AB – computers and software existed long before what we know today as the Internet…computers were not glorified typewriters at the time of the onset of the Internet.
Guys . . .Vanity Fair just did a retrospective on the invention of the internet, tracing it from US government projects to where it is today. I think it was the same issue with Angelina Jolie on the cover, and also the issue that threw Bill Clinton under the bus for running around with ne’er do wells.
I think all you can take away from Obama’s comment is that he reads Vanity Fair.
He meant internet.. ie arpanet etc… so sue him…
He was clearly referring to ARPANET which was the seed that blossomed in the internet.
Also, a lot of early computer work was government (e.g for cryptography) and academia driven.
Minor gaffe at most. Much smaller than Pakistan was a failed state when Musharraff took over , or Hezbollah leaving Lebanon!!
[...] Obama Debate Gaffe October 8, 2008 at 1:27 am [...]
Well yes invention has many fathers…however the US Government probably did provide the money for both the Iowa computer & certainly did for the internet which grew from a DoD project to provide robust communications in case of a war.
As for the comcept of a computer it seems a reach to split hairs on that. After all the digital computer wouldn’t have been possible without the logical concepts which have been with the universe forever.
It was a pretty clear he meant internet but said compute. So yes a gaffe but not a very meaningful one.
The Davis Plan, and connections to Obama
While serving in Navy Intelligence from 1958-1967, In 1963 I read the FBI file on Frank Marshal Davis. He had out lined the Communist plan to take over america from within, by installing educators at all levels of our educational system, gaining control of the media, getting Liberal judges appointed, recruiting, training and backing people to be elected to public office. I have researched every piece of legislation i can find that the Liberal democrats have passed since the early sixties, and if you will research for your self you will find that they have been slowly moving this country towards Socialism. When Obama announced he was Running for President, an unknown, with only one major speeech at the DNC that the DNC abd MSM made so much fuss over, aroused my old Intel suspisions, so I started researching. I have not found any evidence to convince me he is a Muslim, but I did find his radical associations were unusual. I found that Frank Marshal Davis who had fled from Chicago to Hawaii in 1958 because of the FBI investigation, met Obama in Hawaii when Obama was 12 years old, and was Obama’s mentor from then till Davis died in 1987. Davis put Obama in touch with the Socialist Party in Chicago (called the New Party) which Ayers is also a member of, therefore the first “Planned” contact with Ayres. The New Party helped launch and finance Obama’s political Career. Obama…..selected, trained, groomed, and scripted to become the “puppet” leader of the United Socialist States of America
He didn’t mean the internet, he said they developed it to develop targeting and I’m sure he meant WWII since that was when the computer was first used by the military to do just that.
The government didn’t invent it, it was a private sector development that succeeded without any money from the government, but the military (you know, the people that Obama disagrees with on how to conduct a war), did develop one of the first main computer applications.
ENIAC was developed for the Army during WWII at the
U. of Pennsylvania to compute artillery trajectories. It was the first general-purpose electronic computer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC
The Internet was likewise strongly, but not solely, influenced by ARPANET which was developed under the sponsorship of the DoD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
I’m wondering Algore whether will take issue here since has a lot of contributions in this field, too.
The computer invention has a long, long history, related to both math and mechanics – remember the Odhner wheel? Coming to modern times, and to America where computers (as we understand them today) were invented, the process was pretty long too, with many participants, much synergy of diverse field, etc. – however, the government scientists wasn’t impressively involved in this.
However, the point I want to make regards not Glibama’s statement but the mind set behind it: the government scientists. The government, not private initiative – and this is quite telling about how Obama sees the ordrer in society, with a government which covers and directs all areas of life.
Hewlett and Packard wouldn’t have voted for this pharaoh in wait – me neither.
A non-issue. Who gives a rat’s behind who invented the computer or the internet. What a bunch of nit picking weirdos.
Minor gaffe, perhaps, but do recall that Obama once criticised McCain for his inability to send email (of course this is because both of his shoulders are broken more than anything) because Obama was the tech master. Apparently, Just like his running mate who thought that FDR got on the TV to curb fears over the stock market collapse, when FDR wasn’t presedent at the time and the TV was a really cool idea for the future, Obama doesn’t have a clear grasp of history. How does the old saying go “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it”
[...] Obama forgot his WWII history and mistakenly had the government inventing computers. And McCain laid out a mortgage plan that reminds us that he’s not a conservative, like we [...]
Wow! This could be a game changer! This probably even disqualifies Obama from being commander in chief. How come none of the networks are talking about this? It must be because the the liberally biased liberal media elite loves Obama so much!
…. or not.
It was pretty clear he was referring to ARPANET and the development of the Internet, not to computers. Perhaps the reason none of the networks mentioned it is because they knew, like everyone else, what he was referring to.
I almost laughed myself to death over that one. I may be wrong and am a lot of times, but I believe the US Army developed the internet to communicate in a more effect way. Not the computer. And This guy went to harvard.
My question is: Was the computer invented during that period when the U.S. failed to intervene in the Holocaust? Do they not cover WWII at Columbia and Harvard?
First off, I am not an Obama supporter. That said, there was no Gaffe by Obama relating to computers or the Internet yesterday. While computers were invented outside the government, it was programs like NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs that led directly to the PC revolution. The Apollo capsule needed a control computer to fit into a 1 foot cube area in a time when computer systems filled entire rooms.
Also, the Internet was created via a DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) military program started in 1969. This research led to the creation of the TCP and IP protocols. It was developed and expanded via the military and universities doing military research. These protocols were adopted by the ARPANET, the direct descendant of the Internet.
“He was clearly referring to ARPANET which was the seed that blossomed in the internet.” Who knows what he meant, he sure didn’t. The government didn’t invent the Arpanet any more than it invented powered air flight just because it gave the Wright brothers money to build an airplane for the armed forces.
I think it is very meaningful. He believes that inovation comes predominately from the government. The government will mandate inovation, and then throw the scraps the the private sector. Even if you grant that he was talking about the internet, you can’t deny that most of the inovation on the internet, such as the WWW and HTML, came from the private sector initially. If it weren’t for private sector development we would not have web pages, which is what most people refer to as the internet. With Obama as president we will have mandated inovation, citizens. Who can stop him now?
Obama was almost right. Contract employees at the Dept. of Defense “invented” ARPANET the forerunner of the Internet.
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