@remi said in Before AI....Before Crypto...There Was...BIG DATA:
analog computing systems (perforated cards for e.g. census).
Tsk. Punch cards are not analogue computing systems. They are non-electronic computing at best (mostly just "tabulation" rather than computation, anyway).
Analogue computing is ... Well, I'll cite the first paragraph of the relevant page on the Unreliable Source:
An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (analog signals) to model the problem being solved.
Among the simplest analogue computers is the humble slide rule...