Michael Glaesemann wrote:
> 
> On Oct 3, 2007, at 7:53 , Michael T. Richter wrote:
> 
>> (I have similar questions about people acting as if functional 
>> programming -- '50s -- were the New Deal.)
> 
> Huh. I haven't seen many people claiming Roosevelt had much influence on 
> computer science.
> 
> Michael Glaesemann
> grzm seespotcode net
> 
> 

Well ... he did fund the Manhattan Project, after all. Most of the 
calculations for that, however, were done by rooms full of men and women 
operating mechanical desk calculators, under the direction of John Von 
Neumann and others. These men and women were known as "computers", and 
in many cases had college degrees in mathematics.

The genius of Von Neumann was that he saw that such calculations could 
be done faster, more accurately and with lower cost electronically. But 
it didn't happen until *after* the Manhattan Project was over and FDR 
was in his grave.