The National Museum of Computing is a UK-based museum that is dedicated to collecting and restoring historic computer systems, and is home to the world’s largest collection of working historic computers. The museum is located on Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes. Like much of the site the buildings are unassuming shed-like structures with no hint of the history they contain.
Silicon whispers,
History hums through ancient chips,
Computing echoes
The UK National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) was established through the efforts of dedicated volunteers and enthusiasts. In the early 2000s, a group of computer history enthusiasts, including engineers, historians, and former Bletchley Park staff, recognized the need to preserve and showcase historic computing equipment. They formed the TNMOC Trust and began collecting artifacts, securing funding, and planning the museum.
Bletchley Park Connection:
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- TNMOC found a home at Bletchley Park, the site where codebreakers worked during World War II.
- The museum occupies Block H, a building that originally housed some of the Colossus computers used for codebreaking.
i was at an AI conference at Bletchley Park and although it wasn’t really part of the day, I took an hour to wander through the exhibits at TNMOC. No dull displays behind dusty glass here, the computers are working and running. The smell of hot oil is in the air, and the rooms flicker with the light from Nixie tubes and CRT monitors, and the clatter of teleprinters is a part of the background atmosphere.
Appropriately for a day dedicated to looking at the future of AI, TNCOM runs an original Commodore PET 1979 running “Eliza”, the worlds first attempt at which loosely be described as “AI”. Developed from 1964 to 1967, ELIZA’s creator, Weizenbaum, intended the program as a method to explore communication between humans and machines. However some users genuinely attributed human-like feelings to the computer program.
I had a go to see if it might pass the Turing Test.
I wasn’t fooled, would you be?