Edmund Callis Berkeley (February 22, 1909 – March 7, 1988) was an American computer scientist who co-founded the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

(ACM) in 1947. His 1949 book ''Giant Brains, or Machines That Think'' popularized cognitive images of early computers. He was also a social activist who worked to achieve conditions that might minimize the threat of

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...

Biography

Berkeley attended St. Bernard's School and

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

. He received a BA in Mathematics and Logic from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1930. He pursued a career as an insurance

actuary An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the corresponding field is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset man ...

Prudential Insurance Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both Investor#Retail_investor, retail and i ...

from 1934–48, except for service in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Berkeley saw

George Stibitz George Robert Stibitz (April 30, 1904 – January 31, 1995) was a Bell Labs researcher internationally recognized as one of the fathers of the modern digital computer. He was known for his work in the 1930s and 1940s on the realization of Boole ...

's calculator at

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

in 1939, and the Harvard Mark I in 1942. In November, 1946 he drafted a specification for "Sequence Controlled Calculators for the Prudential", which led to signing a contract with the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1947 for one of the first

UNIVAC UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company an ...

computers. Berkeley left Prudential in 1948 to become an independent consultant when the company forbade him to work on projects related to avoiding nuclear war, even on his own time. He sometimes wrote using the pseudonym "Neil D. MacDonald". He became famous in 1949 with the publication of his book ''Giant Brains, or Machines That Think'' in which he described the principles behind computing machines (called then "mechanical brains", "sequence-controlled calculators", or various other terms), and then gave a technical but accessible survey of the most prominent examples of the time, including machines from MIT, Harvard, the Moore School, Bell Laboratories, and elsewhere. In ''Giant Brains'', Berkeley also outlined a device which some have described as the first "

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

", ''

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

''. Plans on how to build this computer were published in the journal

Radio Electronics Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

in 1950 and 1951. Simon used relay logic and cost about $600 to construct. The first working model was built at Columbia University with the help of two graduate students. Berkeley founded, published and edited ''

Computers and Automation Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as networking and the Internet. Most computer magazines offer (or offered) advice, some offer programming tutorials, reviews of the latest technologies, and advertisements. Hist ...

'', the first computer magazine. He also created the

Geniac Geniac was an educational toy billed as a " computer" designed and marketed by Edmund Berkeley, with Oliver Garfield from 1955 to 1958, but with Garfield continuing without Berkeley through the 1960s. The name stood for "Genius Almost-automatic C ...

and Brainiac toy computers. In 1958 Berkeley joined the

Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy Peace Action is a peace organization whose focus is on preventing the deployment of nuclear weapons in space, thwarting weapons sales to countries with human rights violations, and promoting a new United States foreign policy based on common sec ...

(SANE).

Computer Art

On the title page of the magazine "Computers and Automation", January 1963, Edmund Berkeley published a picture by

Efraim Arazi Efraim R. "Efi" Arazi ( he, אפי ארזי) (14 April 1937 – 14 April 2013) was an Israeli technology pioneer and businessman. Education Arazi enrolled as a cadet to study electronics in the Israel Defense Forces at the Air Force Technol ...

from 1962 as

Computer Art Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditi ...

. This picture inspired him to initiate the first

Computer Art Contest A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These pro ...

in 1963. Berkeley had coined the term

. The annual contest was a key point in the development of computer art up to the year 1973. This way Edmund Berkeley became a pioneer in the field of computer art.

Books

*''Giant Brains, or Machines That Think'' (1949), Wiley & Sons *''Computers: Their Operation and Applications'' (1956), New York: Reinhold Publishing *''Symbolic Logic and Intelligent Machines'' (1959), New York: Reinhold Publishing* * * *''Probability and Statistics: An Introduction through Experiments'' (1961), Science Materials Center *''The Computer Revolution'' (1962), Doubleday *''The Programming Language LISP: Its Operation and Applications'' (1964) *''A Guide to Mathematics for the Intelligent Nonmathematician'' (1966), Simon and Schuster *''Computer-assisted Explanation: A Guide to Explaining: and some ways of using a computer to assist in clear explanation'' (1967), Information International *''Ride the East Wind; Parables of Yesterday and Today'' (1973), Quadrangle, *''The Computer Book of Lists and First Computer Almanack'' (1984), Reston Publishing,

Notes

External links

Edmund C. Berkeley Papers

Charles Babbage Institute The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

, University of Minnesota.
Obituary
in Communications of the ACM (1988) (access restricted)
Berkeley timeline
Retrieved April 10, 2007
Computers and Automation archive
issues 1954 to 1978 {{DEFAULTSORT:Berkeley, Edmund 1909 births 1988 deaths American actuaries American computer scientists Prudential Financial people St. Bernard's School alumni Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Harvard College alumni