DOCSLIB.ORG

Stop, Reader! Fr Busa Is Dead

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Stop, Reader! Fr Busa Is Dead page 22 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Wednesday, 24 August 2011, number 34 The Jesuit who invented computer language and planned the monumental ‘Index Thomisticus’ Stop, reader! Fr Busa is dead If you surf on the Internet or use a PC to write an emails, it is thanks to him. If you can read this article, you owe it to him Fr Roberto Busa, SJ, died on Tuesday, “Stop, Reader! Fleming is dead; per- compare them 9 August 2011 at the age of 97. He haps you too owe your life to him”, with other was a pioneer in computer linguistics. was the headline splashed across the s o u rc e s . The following is a translation of ex- front page of a Milanese evening pa- On a trip to cerpts from an obituary written in the per. Today the same invitation could the United Italian daily of our newspaper. be addressed to all those sitting in States Fr Busa front of their computers at this mo- asked to meet ment. Thomas Wat- ST E FA N O LORENZETTO Were technological holiness to ex- son, founder of ist, I think I could say that I had That a journalist should be given an IBM. The mag- the privilege of meeting it: it was appointment in Heaven rarely — ac- nate received personified by Fr Busa. Therefore, tually, never — happens at the end him in his New Reader, go down on your knees in York office. of an interview. Yet it happened to front of the mortal remains of this me last 28 September. “What do Listening to elderly priest, linguist, philosopher the Italian you think Heaven is like?” was the and computer expert. If you surf on priest’s request, last question I asked Fr Roberto the Internet, it is thanks to him. If Watson shook Busa, the Jesuit who invented com- you jump from one site to another, his head, “It is puter language. “Like the heart of clicking on links highlighted in blue, impossible to God, immense”, he replied. Then he it is thanks to him. If you use a PC Rome, 1973 added, “Listen, I’ll be waiting for to write emails and documents, it is make a ma- you too in Heaven, don't let me thanks to him. And if you can read chine do what down!”, and turning to Maurizio this article, it is thanks to him. you are asking. You claim to be expert in linguistics and computer The computer more American than we are!”. science, has attested backed by doc- originally came Fr Busa then drew from his pock- umentation, Fr Busa really did work into being solely et a business card he picked up with on hypertext at least 15 years before in order to cal- the multinational’s slogan, coined by Nelson. Th i n k culate — to com- the boss: “ ”; followed by: Between Pisa and Boulder, Color- “What's difficult we can do straight pute, hence its ado and Venice, the Jesuit gave life away, the impossible takes a little name: computer. to a titanic effort that lasted almost longer”. He handed it to Watson But Fr Busa half a century, investing 1,800,000 with a disappointed shrug. breathed into it hours, roughly what it would take Busa had touched a raw nerve the gift of one man who worked regular trade and the President of IBM re t o r t e d words. this union hours for 1,000 years. Today “Ok, Father. We’ll try, but on one the results are available on CD-ROM happened in condition. Promise me that you 1949. This Jesuit and paper, in 56 volumes for a total won’t change the name of IBM, In- of 70,000 pages. From the first was keen to ana- ternational Business Machines, into lyse the com- volume, published in 1951, Busa International Busa Machines!” catalogued every single word in the plete works of St This challenge between two geni- Thomas Aqui- 118 books by St Thomas and in 61 uses resulted in hypertext — the by other authors. nas: one and a overall structure of pieces of inform- half million Roberto Busa was the second of New York, 1956 ation linked to each other by dy- the five children of a station master. lines, nine mil- namic connections that may be con- “We would move from one city to lion words (com- sulted on a computer at the click of the next: Genoa, Bolzano, Verona”, Don, the photographer, he said: pared to the mere 100,000 of the Di- a mouse. he told me. “In 1928 we arrived in “And you as well. And if, as I hope, vine Comedy). He had already com- The term “hyp ertext”was coined Belluno and I entered the seminary. you delay coming, you will find me piled 10,000 index cards by hand by Ted Nelson, in 1965, to hypothes- Albino Luciani was in my class”. sitting by the gates, like this”. He just for the inventory of the preposi- izesoftwarethat wasabletomemor- Busa entered the Society of Jesus clasped his hands and began twid- tion “in”, which he considered im- ize the history of a user’s actions. dling his thumbs: “Are those guys in 1933. He was ordained a priest on portant from a philosophical view- However, as the author of L i t e ra r y 30 May 1940. ever going to arrive?”. point. He had looked, unsuccess- Ma c h i n e s admits, the idea was older Since 10:00 p.m., Tuesday, 9 Au- In his long life he was acquainted fully, for a way to connect single than the invention of the computer. with seven Popes. He had particu- gust, Fr Busa has been waiting for fragments of Aquinas’ thought to Moreover as Antonio Zoppetti, an us at those gates. “No hurry”, he larly cordial relations with Paul VI, would be saying, with his Venetian and of course, with his friend John a f f a b i l i t y. Paul I, “who envied me”, he said, Roberto Busa was born in Vi- “because I had become a Jesuit and cenza to parents originally from Lus- he hadn’t”. Like John Paul I,his iana, on the high plateau of Asiago, dreams of becoming a missionary and, to be precise, in the Busa dis- never came true. Instead the Provin- trict from which they took their cial Superior asked me pointblank: name. “Would you like to be a professor?”. The eminent scholar who com- “No”, I answered and the Superior piled the Index Thomisticus died of replied, “Excellent. You will be one old age at the Aloisianum, the Insti- nevertheless”. And I was sent to the tute at Gallarate, Varese. He had Gregorian to study “for a lectureship lived there since the 1960s, together in philosophy on St Thomas Acqui- with the great doyens of the Society nas”. of Jesus, including Cardinal Carlo Fr Busa had clear ideas about the Maria Martini, a friend with whom origins of computer science: “A he conversed frequently. mind that knows how to write pro- For many years Busa was a pro- grammes is certainly intelligent. But fessor at the Pontifical Gregorian a mind that knows how to write pro- University and at the Catholic Uni- grammes which writes other pro- versity, as well as, from 1995 to 2000, grammes is ranked at a superior at the Polytechnic in Milan, where level of intelligence. The cosmos is he gave courses on artificial intelli- not a giant computer. The program- gence and robotics. His research led mer is neither the author nor produ- to the creation of the Roberto Busa cer. We call God Mystery because in Award, the highest honour in the the circuits of daily bustle we cannot sector. He would have been 98 years meet him. But the Gospels assure us old on 28 November. that 2,000 years ago he came down When Alexander Fleming, who On 14 July 1976 Fr Busa presents the “Index Thomisticus” to Paul VI, on the left Mons. Pasquale from Heaven”. discovered penicillin, died in 1955, Macchi and Cardinal Albino Luciani, who was Roberto Busa's room mate in the se m i n a r y. Fr Busa went to meet him..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Punching Holes in the International Busa Machine Narrative
    IDEAH • Vol. 1, Iss. 1 (DHSI 2017 & 2018) Punching Holes in the International Busa Machine Narrative Arun Jacob Published on: May 31, 2020 DOI: 10.21428/f1f23564.d7d097c2 License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0) IDEAH • Vol. 1, Iss. 1 (DHSI 2017 & 2018) Punching Holes in the International Busa Machine Narrative The fabled origin story of humanities computing takes place in 1946 when Jesuit Priest Father Roberto Busa and Thomas J. Watson Sr. the CEO of International Business Machines (IBM) meet, exchange pleasantries, and lay the groundwork for producing an index of the complete writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Winter 4). Busa and Watson’s meeting marks the genesis of the field since the theologian was able to acquire the material, technical, and financial support from the technocrat to engage in his scholarly endeavour, developing a linguistic corpus using computing technologies. This illustrious digitization project of sorting and indexing 11 million words of medieval Latin in the works of St. Thomas Aquinas produced a touchstone for humanities computing, the Index Thomisticus (Hockey 4). Busa, along with IBM technicians, developed machine-readable concordances and in the process, built a bibliography that was searchable through a telephonic coupler. Busa’s pioneering work, “Exploring the Concept of Presence According to Thomas Aquinas” (83), was accomplished by repurposing business machines developed primarily for record-keeping to generate automated concordances that have been widely celebrated as the genesis of the field of humanities computing, later christened digital humanities. In this paper, I will be studying how the cultural memory of Fr.
    [Show full text]
  • L'o S S E Rvator E Romano
    Price € 1,00. Back issues € 2,00 L’O S S E RVATOR E ROMANO WEEKLY EDITION IN ENGLISH Unicuique suum Non praevalebunt Forty-fourth year, number 34 (2208) Vatican City Wednesday, 24 August 2011 Benedict XVI celebrates 26th World Youth Day 2011 – 18-21 August: Madrid, Spain Share with others the joy of your faith The next WYD in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 Rain and shine at Cuatro Vientos GI O VA N N I MARIA VIAN Perhaps the most vivid memory the two million young people, who came from all over the world to take part in the World Day in Madrid, will retain is a moment during the Prayer Vigil. Such as when Benedict XVI, buffeted by the beating rain and barely protec- ted by a few white umbrellas, told his collaborators that he would stay, like the young men and wo- men drenched and huddled in the boundless space of Cuatro Vientos Air Base; it was as if he were ex- pressing his relationship with his juventud [young people] in a simple and serene gesture of cour- age which met with resounding applause on the part of “the Pope's young people”, as the throng presented itself in these past few days. It was no more than a token, if you like, but laden with signific- ance because of a profound truth that refers to the essential: affec- See inside for complete coverage of the Holy Father's Visit to Madrid. Pages 3-17 tion for the Pope whose authentic features are becoming ever better known.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Diversity and the Digital Humanities
    Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-018-0216-0 ORIGINAL PAPER Cultural Diversity and the Digital Humanities Simon Mahony1 Received: 30 December 2017 / Accepted: 20 February 2018 © The Author(s) 2018. This article is an open access publication Abstract Digital humanities has grown and changed over the years; we have moved away from expecting technology to be a tool to make humanities research easier and faster into one where we are now equal partners. Our collaborative projects drive forward the research agendas of both humanists and technologists. There have been other changes too. The focus of our scholarly interest has moved away from its historical origins in text-based scholarship, although that now has many more possibilities, and we are seeing an interest in exploring culture and heritage more widely. Where the progress is slower is in our moves towards openness and inclusivity, and this is to some extent hampered by a lack of linguistic diversity. This is being addressed with specialist groups within the major DH organizations on a national and a global level. DH has grown rapidly in China, and the anglophone world could do more to engage with practitioners and potential colleagues in this new vibrant and emerging area. There are certainly Western centres that specialize, particularly in Chinese texts and historical documents, but this needs to be extended further if we are not to impose limits on the conversations, synergies and collaborations that can result. Keywords Digital humanities · Cultural diversity · Multi-lingualism · Community · Globalism & Simon Mahony [email protected] 1 Department of Information Studies, UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK 123 S.
    [Show full text]
  • One Origin of Digital Humanities Julianne Nyhan • Marco Passarotti Editors
    One Origin of Digital Humanities Julianne Nyhan • Marco Passarotti Editors One Origin of Digital Humanities Fr Roberto Busa in His Own Words Foreword by Steven E. Jones 123 Editors Julianne Nyhan Marco Passarotti University College London (UCL) Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore London, UK Milan, Italy Translated by Philip Barras, Andreia Carvalho, and Tessa Hauswedell ISBN 978-3-030-18311-0 ISBN 978-3-030-18313-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18313-4 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
    [Show full text]