Karl Steinbuch


Karl W. Steinbuch was a German computer scientist, cyberneticist, and electrical engineer. He was an early and influential researcher of German computer science, and was the developer of the Lernmatrix, an early implementation of artificial neural networks. Steinbuch also wrote about the societal implications of modern media.

Biography

Steinbuch studied at the University of Stuttgart and in 1944 he received his PhD in physics. In 1948 he joined :de:Standard Elektrik Lorenz|Standard Elektrik Lorenz in Stuttgart, as a computer design engineer and later as a director of research and development, where he filed more than 70 patents. There Steinbuch completed the first European fully transistorized computer, the ER 56 marketed by SEL. In 1958 he became professor and director of the institute of technology for information processing of the University of Karlsruhe, where he retired in 1980.
In 1967 he began publishing books, in which he tried to influence German education policy. Together with books from colleagues like Jean Ziegler from Switzerland, Eric J. Hobsbawm from UK, and John Naisbitt his books predicted what he regarded as the coming education disaster of the emerging civic lobby society.
In 1957, Steinbuch coined the term Informatik, the German word for computer science, which gave informatics, and the term :de:Kybernetische Anthropologie|kybernetische Anthropologie.

Awards and recognition

Steinbuch wrote several books and articles, including: