About This Blog
Automating Invention is Robert Plotkin's blog on the impact of computer-automated inventing on the law (primarily patent law). The blog also explores the implications of computer-automated inventing for creativity, ethics, and high-tech industry.
News Feeds
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Categories
Links
Blogs
- 271 Patent Blog
- BLOG@IP::JUR
- Boalt IP Blawg
- Epistasis Blog
- Evolutionary Computation
- Genetic Argonaut
- IlliGAL Blog
- Invent Blog
- The Long Tail
- IP Newsflash
- The Open Road
- Patent Pending
- Peer to Patent
- The Singularity Institute
- Promote the Progress Blawg
Technology & Policy
- Berkman Center for Internet and Society
- Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- MIT STS Program
- Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic
- Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
- U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery
Resources (Law)
- Bitlaw
- European Patent Office
- Software Patent Institute
- Software Patents vs. Parliamentary Democracy
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- World Intellectual Property Organization
Resources (Technology)
- Genetic-Programming.org (John Koza)
- Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
- Genetic Algorithms Archive
- Genetic Algorithms and Artificial Life Resources
- Genetic Programming FAQ
- Genetic Programming Bibliography
- Generative Programming
- HDL Page
- NASA Evolvable Systems Group
- Evolvable Hardware (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
- Evolvable Hardware (University of Oslo)
Commercial Applications
- Affinnova, Inc.
- Icosystem Corporation
- Imagination Engines, Inc.
- Matrix Advanced Solutions Ltd.
- Natural Selection, Inc.
- NuTech Solutions
- Quantum Leap Innovations
- Red Cedar Technology
- TenFold Corporation
People
- Sion Balass
- Peter J. Bentley
- Hans-Georg Beyer
- Eric Bonabeau
- Ralph Clifford
- David Davis
- David Fogel
- James Foster
- David Goldberg
- Erik Goodman
- J. Storrs Hall
- Andrew Hodges’ Alan Turing Site
- John Holland
- Gregory Hornby
- Lorenz Huelsbergen
- John Koza
- Ray Kurzweil
- Hod Lipson
- Jason Lohn
- Julian Miller
- James Moor
- Daniel H. Pink
- Jordan Pollack
- Joe Rothermich
- Karl Sims
- Daniel H. Pink
- Lee Spector
- Stephen Thaler
- Adrian Thompson
- Marcel Thuerk
- Christof Teuscher
- Andy Tyrell
- Tina Yu
Philosophy
October 2, 2008
Calculator Dates Back Two Millenia
The ancient Greek "Antikythera mechanism," dating back to 100 BC, "is thought to be a mechanical computer, which used sophisticated algorithms to calculate the motions of celestial bodies," reports Jo Marchant of New Scientist.
Posted by Robert at 7:46 PM
| Comments (0)
category:
History of Computing
September 30, 2008
Relaunch of Automating Invention!
Automating Invention has been relaunched with a sparkling new design, updated links to related web sites, and a variety of new features including the ability to:
- share blog postings via email and any of your favorite social networking sites, courtesy of ShareThis.
- post comments (comment spam had caused me to turn off this feature in the past);
- subscribe to blog postings by email, courtesy of Bot a Blog.
Posted by Robert at 7:30 PM
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category:
History of Computing
May 27, 2006
Mark Twain Fails at Investing in Automation
There's a good piece in the New Scientist about Mark Twain's failed investments in "the Paige Compositor," a mechanical device that attempted mimic the movements of a human typesetter.
Posted by Robert at 10:00 AM
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category:
History of Computing
February 16, 2006
"New" Interviews with ENIAC Co-Inventor J. Presper Eckert
ComputerWorld has posted portions of previously-unreleased interviews held with J. Presper Eckerthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC, co-inventor of ENIAC. In relation to automation, he discusses the shift from mechanical to electrical components in computers, and the shift from human "computers" to the electronic versions we have grown to know and love.
Posted by Robert at 9:27 AM
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category:
History of Computing
January 17, 2006
Book: When Computers Were Human
The following is from the publisher's web page for the book When Computers Were Human by David Alan Grier:
Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology.
It looks like a good read. And the topic certainly raises the question, if "computer," "compiler," and "assembler" once referred to people but now refer to computer hardware and software, will "programmer" be next?
Posted by Robert at 8:14 AM
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category:
History of Computing