Computing and automation
1990 in der Ausstellung: Konrad Zuse und der Nachbau seines ersten Computers, die Z 1
Knowledge, information and data processing
Every living organism must recognize, store and process the structures in the world that surrounds it. Humans have only been able to hold our own in the course of evolution with the help of our intellectual abilities, thereby extending our knowledge in order to use nature for our own purposes. Shapes, pattern, structures, quantities, distances, sizes and relative size must all be recognized and understood in relation with one another. In the course of human history, our knowledge – and with it the quantity of information we need to process – has increased rapidly. In order to cope with the ever-increasing quantity of the arithmetic tasks, people developed devices to help in calculation. Mechanical counting machines already existed in early civilizations six to seven thousand years ago.
The first calculating machines were developed in the 17th century and the first computer in 1936. Since then, computer technology has developed rapidly. Today, without automation and computers, our everyday lives would be unthinkable. The rapid development of computer technology has led to elation, but also to insecurity. Fear of computer criminality is not unfounded and can only be met with sound information about the purpose, function, possibilities and risks of this technology.
At present the department presents its exhibitions on approximately 300 square meters
Poster Zuse-exhibition, 2003
“Konrad Zuse – The world’s first computer”
The inventor of the world’s first computer was at the same time an entrepreneur full of ideas and a talented artist. In the exhibition one can see, for the first time, nearly all the computers built by Konrad Zuse – from the Z1 right up to the Z31 – in connection with both his company and family history. But it also shows the other side of this brilliant engineer – both his abstract and expressionistic painting.
In addition to this, Konrad Zuse’s "Plankalkül", the first high-level programming language, as well as his philosophy of nature is presented. Zuse predicted the future of the computer in this June 20th 1937 diary entry:
“With this primitive type of a mechanical brain it must be possible to solve all tasks of thinking which are detectable by our devices…”
The exhibition was produced with the collaboration of the Zuse family.