Edward Fredkin
Edward Fredkin | |
---|---|
Dickson Prize in Science 1984 | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Computer science, physics, business |
Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Capital Technologies, Inc. |
Edward Fredkin (October 2, 1934 – June 13, 2023)[1] was an American computer scientist, physicist and businessman who was an early pioneer of digital physics.[2]
Fredkin's primary contributions included work on
During his career, Fredkin was a professor of computer science at the
Early life and education
Fredkin's mother and father were both Russian immigrants who met in Los Angeles, and he was the youngest child of four. His mother was a concert pianist, although she did not perform professionally. She died from cancer when he was 11. His father was a businessman but had lost everything in the
In 1952, he joined the
Career
Fredkin worked with a number of companies in the computer field and held academic positions at a number of universities. He was a computer programmer, a pilot, an advisor to businesses and governments, and a physicist. His main interests concerned digital computer-like models of basic processes in physics.[7]
Fredkin's initial focus was physics; however, he became involved with computers in 1956 when he was sent by the Air Force, where he had trained as a jet pilot, to the
Fredkin wrote a PDP-1
In 1962, he founded Information International, Inc., an early computer technology company which developed high-precision digital-to-film scanners, as well as other leading-edge hardware. The company became publicly traded and Fredkin became a millionaire.[5]
In 1968,
Fredkin had formal and informal associations with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) over several decades. His later[when?] academic interests were in the area of digital mechanics, which is the study of discrete models of fundamental process in physics.[13] Fredkin has been a Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science at CMU,[8] and also a visiting scientist at MIT Media Laboratory.[14] As of 2022[update], he was Distinguished Career Professor of Robotics at CMU.[15]
Fredkin served as the founder or CEO of a diverse set of companies, including Information International, Three Rivers Computer Corporation, New England Television Corporation (owner of Boston's then CBS affiliate WNEV on channel 7), and The Reliable Water Company (manufacturer of advanced sea water desalination plants).[16]
Fredkin was broadly interested in computation, including hardware and software. He was the inventor of the
Fredkin also worked at the intersection of theoretical issues in the physics of computation with computational models of physics. He invented the SALT Cellular Automata family.[citation needed] Dan Miller designed and programmed the Busy Boxes implementation of Salt, with assistance from Suresh Kumar Devanathan. The early SALT models are 2+1 dimensional quasi-physical, reversible, universal cellular automata, that are second order in time, and that follow rules that model CPT reversibility.[18][12]
Fredkin's version of digital philosophy
Digital Philosophy (DP) is one type of
Pancomputationalists believe that biology reduces to chemistry which reduces to physics which reduces to the computation of information. Fredkin's career and achievements had much of their motivation in digital philosophy, a particular type of "pancomputationalism" described in Fredkin's papers, including "Introduction to Digital Philosophy", "On the Soul", "Finite Nature", "A New Cosmogony", and "Digital Mechanics".[19]
Fredkin's digital philosophy contains several fundamental ideas:[citation needed]
- Everything in physics and physical reality must have a digital informational representation.
- All changes in physical nature are consequences of digital informational processes.
- Nature is finite and digital.
- The traditional Judaeo-Christian concept of the soulhas a counterpart in a static/dynamic soul defined in terms of digital philosophy.
Later projects
PDP-1 Restoration Project
Fredkin chaired the PDP-1 Restoration Project, which was able to restore and reactivate the Computer History Museum's PDP-1 computer after seven months of work.[20][21]
Death
Fredkin died in Brookline, Massachusetts, on June 13, 2023, at the age of 88.[22]
Awards and honors
In 1984, Fredkin was awarded the Carnegie Mellon University Dickson Prize in Science, given annually to the person who has been judged to have made the most progress in a scientific field in the United States during that year.[23] In 1999, CMU established the Fredkin professorship.[24]
Cultural references
A profile of Fredkin, along with a readable explanation of some of his theories, can be found in the first part of Three Scientists and Their Gods by
According to biographer Robert Wright, the character Stephen Falken in the film WarGames was modeled after Fredkin.[26]
See also
References
- ^ a b Williams, Alex (4 July 2023). "Edward Fredkin, 88, Who Saw the Universe as One Big Computer, Dies - An influential M.I.T. professor and an outside-the-box scientific theorist, he gained fame with unorthodox views as a pioneer in digital physics". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 July 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
- ^ See Fredkin's Digital Philosophy web site. Archived 2017-07-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Information about Edward Fredkin". Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
- ^ Hendrie, Gardner. "Oral History of Ed Fredkin" (PDF). computerhistory.org. Computer History Museum. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
- ^ a b c d Simson Garfinkel (April 27, 2021). "Tomorrow's computer, yesterday: Four decades ago at Endicott House, an MIT professor convened a conference that launched quantum computing". MIT News. p. 10.
- ^ a b "PDP-1". Computer History Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
- ^ "ED FREDKIN Bio". CMU. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ a b "Projects". Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ^ "PDP-1". Computer History Museum. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Calteches Library - Robotics PDF" (PDF). Caltech. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) | MIT History".
- ^ a b "About Edward". Stanford. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ^ "Basic Biography". CMU. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "MIT Visiting Scientist". MIT. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ^ "Visitors and Post-Doctoral Associates". - Institute for Software Research - Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ^ "Channel 7". Boston Radio. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "Edward Fredkin, MIT professor and Project MAC luminary, dies at 88". MIT CSAIL. Retrieved 8 Aug 2023.
- ^ (Miller & Fredkin 2005)
- ^ "Fredkin's papers". World News. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
- ^ "PDP-1 Restoration Project". 19 May 2004. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- ^ "The Mouse That Roared: PDP-1 Celebration Event". YouTube.com. 1 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- ^ "Local obituary: Edward Fredkin, 88, 'visionary' scientist and fighter pilot". Boston.com. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
- ^ "Dickson Prize Winners". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- ^ "Computer Science Professor Tom Mitchell Named Carnegie Mellon's Fredkin Professor of AI and Learning". Public Relations Office, School of Computer Science. Carnegie Mellon University. 8 April 1999. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
- ^ "Three Scientists and Their Gods in The Atlantic Monthly". The Atlantic. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
- ^ "War Games". Stanford Crimson Article. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
Works cited
- Miller, Daniel B.; Fredkin, Edward (2005), "Two-state, Reversible, Universal Cellular Automata in Three Dimensions", Proc. 2nd Conf. on Computing Frontiers, Ischia, Italy: ACM, pp. 45–51, S2CID 14082792.
Further reading
- Hagar, Ami (2016). "Ed Fredkin and the Physics of Information: An Inside Story of an Outsider Scientist". S2CID 19827674.
- Wolfram, Stephen (22 August 2023). "Remembering the Improbable Life of Ed Fredkin (1934–2023) and His World of Ideas and Stories". Stephen Wolfram Writings. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
- Wright, Robert (April 1988). "Did the Universe Just Happen?". Atlantic Monthly. (Article contains extensive biographical content on Fredkin.)
External links
- Digital Philosophy.org Archived 2017-07-29 at the Wayback Machine
- Did the Universe Just Happen? The Atlantic Monthly, by Robert Wright, 1988.
- Two-state, Reversible, Universal Cellular Automata in Three Dimensions by Edward Fredkin,
- Information International, Inc.
- Fredkin Prize World Champion team 1997 and Chess Pioneers