Edward Fredkin was born on the 2nd of October 1934 to Russian-Jewish immigrants in Los Angeles. He grew up in a financially struggling household after his father lost everything during the stock market crash of 1929.
Edward Fredkin worked on the SAGE computer system while assigned to MIT Lincoln Laboratory by the United States Air Force starting in 1956. He later designed significant modifications for time-sharing via the BBN Time-Sharing System while working with Ben Gurley on the PDP-1 prototype.
Edward Fredkin died in Brookline Massachusetts on the 13th of June 2023 at the age of eighty-eight. His death marked the end of a career spanning multiple institutions without ever holding a traditional bachelor degree.
Digital philosophy claims all physical processes are forms of computation and that nature is finite and digital instead of infinite or analog. This framework suggests everything in physics must have a digital informational representation where changes result from digital informational processes rather than continuous variables.
Edward Fredkin founded Information International Inc. in 1962 which became publicly traded and made him a millionaire by age thirty. He also established Three Rivers Computer Corporation, New England Television Corporation, and The Reliable Water Company among other ventures beyond pure computing.