In the winter of 1937-38, while on a drive home from visiting a girlfriend, Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff stopped for a drink at a roadhouse tavern near Rockford, Illinois. Over bourbon and water his ideas for the principles of a digital computing device, different from anything conceived before, came together. The machine he envisioned would:
- Use base-two numbers (the binary system) – all other experimental systems at the time used base-ten
- Use electricity and electronics as its principal media
- Use condensers for memory and use a regenerative process to avoid lapses that could occur from leakage of power
- Compute by direct logical action and not by the enumeration methods used in analog calculators
Dr. Atanasoff’s breakthroughs and contributions to the modern computer (Beginning with the Atanasoff -Berry Computer – “ABC”), were finally recognized after a patent lawsuit, “Honeywell vs. Sperrry Rand” , in 1973 -
Ironically, while driving home from my parents Michigan home – through the snowy Pennsylvania mountains on I-80 – I recalled hearing about Dr. Atansoff’s inspiring winter road trip – induced not by alcohol but boredom and fear. And for some inexplicable reason - I started thinking about product announcements and CES 2010.
During this week of CES 2010, when there were so many claims of “revolutionary technology break throughs”, I was again reminded , (this time with the help of a S. American Malbec, in the privacy of my home), about hearing the good Dr.’s story – and his crediting bourbon for his “flash” of brilliance.
Several points struck me as my own personal ”nano epiphany” -
- Will any of the CES 2010 product announcements be remembered, much less covered by patents, in 40 years – in 20 years – 10 -5 – 18 months?
- Dr. Atansoff’s admisson of having “several bourbons” that evening are testament to the need for hard working people to have down time, rest and relexation, to “kick back”.
- And;
Should it be mandatory that all PR & Product Marketing people attending future CES Events be required to drink at least a 5th of Bourbon before making new “revolutionary” announcements?
The real question?
Should all of us reading about CES “revolutionary” product announcements have a few shots as well?
Cheers, Dr. Atanasoff!
1903-1995
