Matt Pollard

Wiki Entry #1: Enigma Cipher Machine

The Enigma Cipher Machine was one of the first modern mechanical devices invented for the purpose of encrypting and decrypting messages. The machine itself was member of a family of rotor based code creating machines that were invented by Arthur Scherbius and patented in 1923. (1) The Enigma name was the model eventually used by Nazi Germany in an attempt to keep their military communication secret. Although several other men also created rotary Cipher machines around the same time, it was Scherbius’s design that was patented and produced. Quickly realizing the potential of Scherbius’s creation, the Nazi Regime seized the technology and became its only operators.

For a short time, the Nazi’s had an advantage over the other nations of the world because no one could break their coded transmissions. Even when Allied forces intercepted transmissions, it was worthless without knowing how to decrypt the information. A break came for the Allies however, when the Nazi’s sent one of the Enigma Machines to an outpost in the country of Poland. The Polish postal service realized what it had been transporting and delivered it to their own military intelligence. A week after fully analyzing the machine, the Poles repackaged the machine and delivered it to its intended recipient. The Nazi’s had their machine back but the Polish knew how it worked. They then built a decipher machine, based on the Nazi one. Before being conquered by the Nazi Forces, Poland was able to pass on what it had learned to its European Allies, most importantly Britain.

Great Britain had already been looking for methods to crack the Nazi codes. The British Intelligence Service called on all of its native experts in numerous fields to attempt to figure out the messages. Among the British scientists who studied the Enigma codes, one man in particular was called on to break them. Alan Turing, one of the fathers of modern computer science, was brought in by British Intelligence to take what was learned by the Polish scientists and develop a fast, real-time method for decrypting Nazi Enigma Transmissions. (3) Turing and his team soon developed ‘The Turing Bomba’. (1) This machine was similar to the Polish decryption machine and was successfully used to decode Nazi transmissions.

Eventually however, Turing had to continually come up with new ways to address decryption because his initial machine was only effective against the current version of Nazi encryption. Every time that the Nazis made a change to how they used the Enigma, a new way to decode the messages had to be found. (2) In addition to the new variations of coding, Nazi intelligence was using a system that developed from the principles of the Enigma, called ‘Tunny’. Tunny was a more advanced form of encryption and Turing took what he learned from the Enigma Cipher Machine to confront this new problem. Turing’s work on Enigma and Tunny was eventually then adapted and implemented into the design of the ‘Colossus’, Britain’s first electronic computer.(2)

The Enigma Cipher Machine was an important invention that changed the way that military forces around the world transmitted their communications. From a strategic standpoint, Enigma gave the Nazi Forces an extremely powerful tool and allowed them many early victories in their conquests. From a defensive standpoint, Enigma gave the Allied scientists a chance to invent new machines that were designed to be more advanced. The constant evolution of the original Enigma and the machines built to continually counter Enigma’s upgrades created the world’s first computer race. Had the Enigma not been used or invented, the furious push for more powerful machines may not have resulted in the production of the Colossus. In addition, all of the research done on the Enigma was used to help design the Colossus as well. Without the Enigma research, the Colossus may have taken much longer to be produced. The Enigma was the catalyst for building new and more powerful machines, which even today is the trend in computer science and technology.

Wiki Entry #2: MS-DOS

MS-DOS stands for Microsoft-Disk Operating System. First released in 1981, MS-DOS was produced by Microsoft to run as a command line based operating system for IBM personal computers and was the dominant operating system of early pcs. (5). A popular misconception is that the Microsoft company itself created MS-DOS but this is untrue. MS-DOS was based on an operating system created by Tim Paterson, an employee of Seattle Computer Products. Paterson’s DOS was called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) and was released in 1980. (2) It wasn’t until a year later that Microsoft purchased the licensing rights for Seattle Computer’s DOS that MS-DOS was available as a commercial product. (1)

Early personal computers were very different than the ones we use today. The flashy graphics and full color Windows screens that we are so familiar with have only been around since 1988. (3) That is when Microsoft released its first graphical user interface. Before that time, computers were run by a disk operating system. In order to interact with a computer, text based commands were used in various computer code languages. These languages were simple to the trained computer scientist but to the average person they were out of reach. It wasn’t until MS-DOS that the language became easy enough to teach and distribute on a commercial basis.

During the early 80’s, most personal computers were run on different versions of operating systems. And any program or software used by one DOS did not necessarily work with any other. This made file sharing and transfer incredibly difficult if not impossible. Every computer had a different combination of hardware and software and this made compatibility a serious issue. Microsoft decided early on that they wanted to standardize the way personal computers worked. MS-DOS allowed for this and by the early 1990’s, over 100 million copies had been sold. (4)

Even though most people are not familiar with MS-DOS, they have been using parts of it even today. The original Windows Operating System, Windows 1.0, was built with MS-DOS at its core and released in 1985. (7) This system, while adding color to the screen did not feature a graphical user interface. Although it began less popular with the newer Windows versions, the command shell of early windows ran on MS-DOS. (6) Versions of MS-DOS have been included in every major release of Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, including Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP and Vista.

MS-DOS is important to modern computing because it provided modern technology the first real opportunity to standardized computing. While many other disk operating systems were available and similar to MS-DOS, Microsoft developed all future versions of its software with the intent of maximizing productivity through compatibility. Instead of businesses and homes having to buy hardware from single sources and of all the same kid, hardware could vary as long as they all had the same operating system. This allowed for customization of hardware options and wider commercial applications. And while Microsoft did not create MS-DOS, they did create Windows, which was based on MS-DOS. And Windows is currently the most widely used operating system in the world.

Wiki Entry #3: Artificial Life

Artificial life is the study of biological life and processes through use of computer models and simulations. Artificial life is not the same as the topic of ‘artificial intelligence’ or ‘AI’. AI is a more familiar concept and deals with a synthetic and/or mechanical life form that demonstrates self-sustaining intelligence. Artificial life, or AL, takes place mostly within a computer program rather than the concept of AI which would be a computer itself, as a synthetic organism. AL can also be referred to as a form of mathematical biology. (1) The goal of AL is to study and observe simulated natural behaviors and was first coined by researcher Christopher Langton, in 1987. (2) However, AL is considered an important component of eventually creating man-made life forms capable of AI. (3)

Based mostly on theoretical principles, AL is also used to recreate behavior (originally observed in nature) using mathematical algorithms, computer programming, and simulation software. (4) Although Langton names Artificial Life, it was first demonstrated earlier by Jon Von Neumann. Searching for explanations of spontaneous natural evolution, Von Neumann created a self-reproducing computer entity using cellular automata. (6)

An example of the use of AL would be researchers observing the natural interaction of an animal and using technology, creating a simulated computer world and programming an independent computer life-form within that program. The researcher would program this computer life-form with a wide variety of possible behavior patterns. The life-form would then be put in the artificial world and have the ‘ability’ to interact with this world randomly, without sequential directives. The researchers would then observe the artificial life-form and based upon its interactions, continue to develop more advanced artificial simulations. A current theory about AL is that, should researchers be able to create AL, entire universes can be created. These universes would be complete with artificial life capable of self-evolution as well as the physical evolution of the world-scape itself and social evolution and interaction of multiple artificial life-forms. (7)

Although AL is a rapidly growing field, scientists debate whether or not an artificial life-form contained within a virtual world would be considered ‘alive’. Some scientists say that an artificial life-form would need a real world body capable of interacting with our world. Other scientists however, say that if the life-form is capable of independent thought and action it would be a life. This is referred to as ‘strong artificial life’. (1) Weak artificial life considers any life-form created within a virtual construct is only a simulation and not alive. (5) However, whether classified as weak or strong, an created entity that simulates natural life and capable of independent movement, thought and action would be a milestone in human history. Although there are attempts to create artificial intelligence, these are made concurrently with the study of AL simulation. Any successful AI would be implicitly based on the pioneers studying AL. Partnered with cybernetics, nanotechnology, advanced computer programming and simulation humans will one day be able to create artificial life with the capacity to demonstrate artificial intelligence.

References

Entry 1

1.Bos, C. D. (n.d.). Enigma Machine and Its U-boat Codes. Retrieved May 30, 2010, from http://www.awesomestories.com/history/u571/story-preface

2. Copeland, J., & Proudfoot, D. (2004, May). Alan Turing, Codebreaker and Computer Pioneer. Retrieved May 30, 2010, from http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/Reference%20Articles/codebreaker.html

3. Gray, P. (1999, March 29). Alan Turing. Retrieved May 30, 2010, from http://205.188.238.181/time/time100/scientist/profile/turing.html

Entry 2

1. A Short History of MS-DOS. Paterson Technology. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from: http://www.patersontech.com/Dos/Byte/History.html

2. Allen, Roy A. A History of the Personal Computer – Chapter 13: Other Software in the 1980’s. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from: http://www.retrocomputing.net/info/allan/eBook13.pdf

3. DOS History.PCBiography.net. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from: http://pcmuseum.tripod.com/dos.htm

4. “MS-DOS”. Anwers Corpotation. 2010. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from: http://www.answers.com/topic/ms-dos

5. "MS-DOS." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from: <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/169706/MS-DOS>

6. “MS-DOS”. Computer Hope. 2010. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from: http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/msdos.htm

7. Windows History. PCBiography.net. Retrieved June 13, 2010 from: http://pcmuseum.tripod.com/windows.htm

Entry 3

1. Boden, Margaret A. ‘Artificial Life’. Retrieved June 27, 2010 from: http://books.google.com/books?id=-wt1aZrGXLYC&pg=PA37&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

2. "Christopher Langton." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved June 27, 2010 from: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1671353/Christopher-Langton

3. Computer Science House. ‘Introduction to Artificial Life’. Retrieved June 27, 2010 from: http://www.csh.rit.edu/~cyke/alife-def.html

4. Howe, Denis. "artificial life." The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. Dictionary.com. Retrieved: June 27, 2010 from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/artificial life

5. ISCID Encyclopedia of Science and Philosophy. ‘Artificial Life’ ISCID Website. Retrieved June 27, 2010 from: http://www.iscid.org/encyclopedia/Artificial_Life

6. Packard, Norman H. Artificial Life. Reed Collage Website. Retrieved June 27, 2010 from: http://people.reed.edu/~mab/publications/papers/ECS.pdf

7. Vidal, Clement. The Future of Scientific Simulations: from Artificial Life to Artificial Cosmogenesis. December 2, 2008. Retrieved June 27, 2010 from: http://arxiv.org/abs/0803.1087