Excerpts
from The Astrology of Computers
(Originally
titled “Midnight at the Millennium”)
By
Philip Brown
(The
Mountain Astrologer,
Dec./Jan. 1998-99)
Over
the past 25 years, our world has been transformed—with
accelerating speed—into a digitally-connected and interdependent
social and economic matrix. This change has affected everything
from our jobs to our personal relationships to our homes, but
it has also made us eerily dependent on digital technology in
ways we are just beginning to fathom. In May, 1998, many individuals
who are dependent on pagers may have been surprised to discover
that a global positioning satellite called the Galaxy 4 was
responsible for their messages; when
that satellite inexplicably failed, pagers all over the
U.S. simply stopped working. The market for cellular phones
and similar electronic gizmos has exploded (Uranus in Aquarius)
but the chips, codes, and gossamer webs of digital circuits—along
with their “bugs”—are so well concealed by
the mesmerizingly glamorous “road ahead” that all
we can do is marvel at the wonderful miracle of our digital
transformation (Neptune in Aquarius).
Because
computers (and their smaller offspring, embedded microchips)
are in some way a part of almost everything we do—driving
a car, buying food, making a phone call—constructing an
event chart for the birth of the modern computer can give us
a great deal of insight into our world and where it is going
as we rapidly approach the new millennium.
There
are many computer “birth” dates to choose from,
but two in particular have a great deal of current relevance.
The
first is the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer).
The ENIAC was built at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering
at the University of Pennsylvania. It was formally dedicated
at a special public unveiling at 7:00 PM EST on February 15,
1946. Although word of ENIAC’s existence was leaked to
the press prior to the public dedication, the dedication itself
acted as a kind of birth from the engineering lab into the public
consciousness. The huge machine was officially switched on and
ran its first public calculations (equivalent, perhaps to a
30-ton, 30-by-50-foot baby’s first breath in the delivery
room). Lights on the ENIAC dramatically blinked and flickered
in true Hollywood fashion. In fact, ENIAC is significant because,
of all inaugural computer events, it was the most glitzy and
resonated most strongly in the public imagination. Subsequent
press reports spoke glowingly of ENIAC’s awesome brain
power. Not surprisingly, Neptune is very strong in the ENIAC
chart. The ENIAC chart represents our idealization and glamorization
of technology. ENIAC was instantly idealized in press reports
as nothing less than an “all-electronic super calculator”
capable of solving “super problems.”[1]
EDVAC:
Memory storage
The
second computer chart is for the lesser-known EDVAC (Electronic
Discrete Variable Automatic Computer). In an academic report
titled “A
First Draft of a report on the EDVAC,” dated June
30, 1945, John von Neumann, who was also working at the Moore
School, conceived of a technological advance on ENIAC, which
was then under development. Although ENIAC was a parallel processor
(i.e., it could do two or more functions simultaneously), it
could store only a very small amount of data and had to be externally
recalibrated every time a new calculation was done. Von Neumann’s
“First Draft” contained the first computer program
design using a stored program. This stored-memory concept has
in turn led to the development of the modern components of digital
technology: computer programming, computer languages, operating
systems, and software. Indeed, von Neumann’s stored-memory
concept “has characterized the mainstream of digital computer
development since 1945. This concept…has made possible
the computer revolution as we now know it.”[2]
John von Neumann’s “First Draft,” although
not officially published, received wide distribution in the
academic world, and has been characterized as “…one
of the most renowned documents in the history of technology…”
[3] Other engineering groups concurrently struggling to develop
computers in the mid 1940s were heavily influenced by von Neumann’s
report. ENIAC was a parallel processor that had no storage capacity,
and EDVAC was a stored-memory computer that could not do parallel
processing. Thus, the combined influences of these two computers
have given us the modern stored-memory, parallel-processing
computer. [4]
Uranus
and computers
In the ENIAC chart, Uranus conjuncts the MC. Uranus has
traditionally ruled computers. Paul Wright notes, “The
return of Uranus to its discovery degree in 1947 heralded the
onset of the computer age.” What could be a more appropriate
placement for the widely-reported public demonstration of the
first computer than Uranus on the MC? Virgo is rising in the
ENIAC chart and all four angles are mutable. Chiron squares
the Mars-Saturn conjunction (“voltage regulation”—the
ENIAC was, after all, electronic). Zane
Stein, who presciently linked Chiron to computers in his
book, Essence and Application: A View from Chiron, likens
Chiron to a seed that uses the “power of something extremely
small to bring about changes in the world around.” [5]
1996
TL66, a mini-planet
On October 9, 1996, a mini-planet, thought to originate
from the Kuiper Belt, was discovered. This new mini-planet,
christened 1996
TL66 by astronomers, is the “brightest object spotted
beyond Neptune since the discoveries in 1930 of Pluto and its
moon, Charon, in 1978…” [6] TL66’s orbit takes
it inside of Pluto and then far beyond to the Kuiper Belt and
the Oort Cloud. It is the largest, brightest, and most eccentric
in orbit of all the Kuiper Belt mini-planets that have been
sited. TL66 is presently at or near its perihelion, which is
why astronomers were able to spot it. The fact that its orbit
links the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud to our solar
system should be of significance to astrologers.
Secondary
Progressions and Computer Trends
…Progressed planetary motions help us to gauge
internal changes, which, when ready, manifest as concrete events.
Progressions are an especially appropriate way for charting
the progress of an internal system like the computer. In particular,
progressed Mercury in both the ENIAC and EDVAC charts, especially
directional and progressed sign changes, seem to correlate uncannily
with major changes in technology. In August 1982, secondary
progressed EDVAC Mercury was stationary retrograde in Virgo,
the sign of its exaltation, and secondary progressed Mars was
sextile EDVAC Pluto and the Uranus/Neptune midpoint (a sensitive
trigger for technological change). That same year, Compaq Computer
incorporated; Sun Microsystems was founded; Microsoft began
licensing MS-DOS; and at the end of the year Time magazine
named the computer its “Man of the Year.” The computer
industry in 1982 was moving away from total reliance on large
mainframe computers to small, desktop personal computers. The
following year, Compaq Computer has the greatest first-year
sales in the history of American business; ten million computers
were in use in the United States; and Apple prepared to introduce
the Macintosh with its famous January 1984 Super Bowl commercial
(which depicted a computer being pulverized by a sledgehammer).
As the secondary progressed EDVAC Mercury will be retrograde
for several more years, we are continuing to witness ever smaller,
more portable computers (i.e., laptops, personal digital assistants,
etc.).
Secondary progressed ENIAC Mercury was also retrograde
and moved back from Aries into its fall in Pisces at the end
of 1990. The following year IBM reported its first revenue decline
in 45 years, and many other computer companies suffered quarterly
or full-year losses. In February 1998 this secondary progressed
ENIAC Mercury went stationary direct just as the digital revolution
moved into high gear—and Neptune entered Aquarius.
Transiting Uranus will soon be squaring the ENIAC Uranus.
Neptune will conjunct the ENIAC Sun in ____. If the ENIAC chart
represents the public idealization of technology, then we will
certainly be witnessing some deep transformation of that in
the public consciousness. The exact form this transformation
will take, and how it will manifest, remain to be seen. Nevertheless,
the “road ahead” promises to be a very interesting
ride.
- “Answers by Eny,”
Newsweek, February 18, 1946, p. 75.
- Anthony Ralston, Editor,
Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Engineering, New
York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold and Company, 1983, p. 1435.
- David Ritchie, The
Computer Pioneers: The Making of the Modern Computer,
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1986, p. 174.
- The Manchester Mark I
in England was the first stored-program computer to become
operational, in 1948. However, its development was made possible
because British engineers visiting the United States read
von Neumann’s “First Draft” and took those
ideas back to England.
- Zane Stein, Essence
and Application: A View from Chiron, Toledo, OH: Zane
Stein Publisher, 1995, p. 85.
- Discovery
Channel Online, “Planetoid Found,” June 6,
1997.
Data
Sources and Further Information
ENIAC
Chart: I received copies of two e-mails from an archivist
at the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center
in response to my phone inquiry about the exact date and time
of the public dedication of ENIAC. The archivist cited several
sources, including an internal memo. I used copies of the original
War Department press releases with date and time (February 15,
1946, 7:00 PM ET) that are referenced as authentic times of
the public dedication in an internal memo cited by the University
of Pennsylvania archivist. In addition, “The ENIAC Story,”
by Martin H. Weik, contains much information on the ENIAC computer
in addition to giving the date it was formally dedicated (February
15, 1946). I took these extra precautions to pin down the date
because there is a great deal of misinformation about the correct
date. I’ve seen February 1, 14, 15, and 16 all used in
various reports. I believe I have established unquestioningly
that it was formally dedicated on February 15, 1946. “The
ENIAC Story” was prepared with the assistance of Herman
Goldstine and Paul Gillon, both of whom were instrumental in
creating ENIAC.
EDVAC
Chart: See John von Neumann’s First
Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, Contract #W-670-ORD-4926,
U.S. Army Ordnance Dept. and Univ. of Penn., Moore School of
Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Penn., Philadelphia, PA, June
30, 1945.
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