Show Can A Machine Replace Brains Will Mechanical Mind Do Mans Man's Thinking is coming closer to its S SCIENCE year old goal of ot thinking machines that can take over where human minds falter Already there are electronic giant brains brains' that can scan a microfilmed library at entries entries entries en en- tries a minute make out a factory's factory's factory's fac fac- torys tory's payroll or a city's telephone bills automatically rattle out mathematical mathematical math math- tables on electric typewriters typewriters type type- writers or chew through equations that tha t would take a human calculator tor more than a lifetime to solve In a London museum this summer summer summer sum sum- mer the great-grandfather great of these scientific prodigies was put on ex ex- A mechanical calculator built by French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1641 it employed principles of addition subtraction and simple multiplication that are still in use in top desk adding ma ma- chines Man first counted with his fingers From his two hands came the decimal system of numbers with the magic base of 10 Oddly enough the most recent electronic computers use a completely different differ differ- cat ent system binary numbers with witha a base of two and only two digits 0 o and 1 In the binary world two becomes 10 three is 11 four is the date 1951 would be written Long before the Christian era opened the curious calculating instrument instrument instrument in in- strument called the abacus had been invented It was used in ancient ancient an an- dent Egypt Greece and Rome much as it is used today in India China Japan Russia and in Chinese Chinese Chi Chi- nese business places In the United States A system of numbering rods rod was invented in 1617 by the Scotchman John Napier Skeptics quickly dubbed them bones but they constituted the earliest mechanical mechanical mechanical me me- means of multiplication They were used In many forms during during during dur dur- ing the century |