For example, in the genomic computer intra-machine communication occurs by means of diffusion (of transcription factors), while in electronic computers it occurs by electron transit along pre-organized wires.
Thus, when attention is limited to objective stimuli and responses, parallels can readily be drawn between perceiving (by living organisms) and information processing (by such devices as electronic computers).
Observational capability has been further enhanced by the invention of various kinds of auxiliary instruments (e.g., the camera, spectrograph, and charge-coupled device) and by the use of electronic computers, rockets, and spacecraft in conjunction with telescope systems.
Back in 2002, I described in a book Machine Dreams the ways in which game theory and rational choice was highly informed by the spread of electronic computers.
This record was broken only by the electronic computers.
Before electronic computers existed, Asimov saw that robots would be programmed, and thus constrained by their programming.
Explanation of parking cycle governed by an electronic computer.
I found this had fascinating implications because it meant that, in principle, moving and shaking DNA strands and enzymes in test tubes could carry out any problem that could be solved by an electronic computer.
Practical use of numerical weather prediction began in 1955, spurred by the development of programmable electronic computers.
ENIAC was hampered, as all previous electronic computers had been, by the need to use one vacuum tube to store each bit, or binary digit.
Early electronic computers were generally programmed by being rewired, or via plugs and patch panels; there was no separate program stored in memory, as in a modern computer.
