[civilization 196] Konrad Zuse, the inventor of the first computer

[ukimiku]

Dear group members,

I believe that hardly anything jas transformed civilization globally
as profoundly as the invention of the computer.

It was invented in 1933 by Konrad Zuse, in Berlin, Germany. The story
of his life is quite intriguing. He built the first working computer,
the "Z1" (Zuse 1) in the living room of his parents, using only metal
sheets, glass panes, and parts from his childhood tool box. The
machine, when finished, weighed roughly a ton and could basically
perform any number of basic calculations as long as the programmer
didn't use more than 64 long-term storage registers (with a length of
22 bits each) and two special-purpose registers for calculations. The
programmed commands, punched in groups of six bits each into a strip
of paper, were read off the tape and executed purely mechanically.
Several years later, while he was working on another, improved,
successor, the "Z4", the British and American bomber pilots covered
Berlin with firebombs and fragmentation bombs, forcing Zuse to
evacuate his coworkers, his machine, and himself, in a breakneck
flight, to Bavaria, Germany. There he met the rocket scientist Wernher
von Braun, General Dornberger, and 30 SS men with a secret assignment.

For those of you who read German, a novel about his life, his dreams,
his entanglement with the Nazi regime, and his obsessions has just
been published by the Hamburg-based artislife publishing company:
"Konrad Zuse - Roman eines Lebens" (Konrad Zuse - the novel of a life)
by Michael Kuyumcu.

Regards

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