ABSTRACT
It’s astounding to think that these twentysomething bright boys would by 1948 have invented the fi rst real-time, electronic digital computer and by 1950 have wrapped their machine in cybernetics, information theory, and operations research, what we perceive today as the basic trappings of Information Technology. But that’s exactly what they did. And in the process of all that wrapping and putting forth, they would also pioneer the new discipline that would make Information Technology universalsystems engineering. In 1946 the only thing in the bright boys’ sights was their machine. Any realization about information-its ubiquitous power and future infl uence-was dormant, but not for very long.
