Remember a corny TV program of yesteryear, Lost in Space, recently turned into a movie? It featured a ROBOT who often objected to reasoning of its fellow humans by saying, "It does not compute!"

Often, you can say that about a computer: "It does not compute!"

Many people wonder, "How can a computing machine do that?". I say that one reason is the misleading label, "computing machine". A machine can't do what a computer does. No contradiction here. For the "computer" is NOT A MACHINE!

Every machine involves solids set in motion, hence, subject to the GALILEAN TRANSFORMATION LAW that says a solid's motion equals its inherent motion plus the motion of its background. But computers since the 50's have been ELECTRONIC, involving the MOTION OF ELECTRONS and PHOTONS which are not simply solid, and their motion is subject to the LORENTZ TRANSFORMATION LAW which says their motion can be independent of the background's motion.

So, machine could never act as fast as the processes of a computer.

I should know because, in 1950 (before the advent of "programming languages") -- at Watson Laboratory, run by IBM and Coo7mbia U. -- I programmed and ran an electro-mechanical computer whose LOGIC CIRCUITS operated by MECHANICAL RELAYS ACCORDING TO ELECTRICAL PULSES FROM PLUGS IN PLUGBOARDS. The EXAM PROJECT was to MULTIPLY TWO 10 x 10 NUMERICAL MATRICES. This required 150 plugboard wires, and took 4 hours to run. Then, I ran it again on a computer whose LOGIC CIRCUITS consisted of vacuum tubes which streamed electrons. This required 10 wires, and took 1 hour to run. Today, even on a PC, it would take about a second.

THE COMPUTER IS NOT A MACHINE BUT AN ELECTRINE -- OPERATING BY ELECTRICITY CONTROLLED BY ELECTRICITY.

Furthermore, IT USUALLY DOESN'T COMPUTE. In 1980, before PC's, it was estimated that, 90% of the time, a computer is SORTING, and COMPUTING came in less than 1% of the time. When's the last time you computed with your computer?

Dig? It's called a "computing machine" because it ISN'T A MACHINE and ALMOST NEVER COMPUTES!

But it does the work of thousands of human slaves. And MISLABELING is one of many reasons why people do not understand this!