If you perform a complex function (e.g. software) using people rather than machinery (hardware), the people who carry out the function are fleshware.
Nobel prizewinner Richard Feynman's describes designing a fleshware 'super-computer' made of punch card machines and human calculators to do the complex calculations needed to design the atom bomb at Los Alamos.
There are many other instances in pre-computing era organizations where complex calculations were carried out by rows of nerds with pencils and papers. Earlier implementations include vast libraries of medieval monks acting as printing presses by writing out manuscripts and pairs of sailors (often duplicated for accuracy) acting as speedometers and sonar by casting knotted lines behind the ship, timed against one or more sand hourglasses and leaded lines below it for depth.
There are many other instances in pre-computing era organizations where complex calculations were carried out by rows of nerds with pencils and papers. Earlier implementations include vast libraries of medieval monks acting as printing presses by writing out manuscripts and pairs of sailors (often duplicated for accuracy) acting as speedometers and sonar by casting knotted lines behind the ship, timed against one or more sand hourglasses and leaded lines below it for depth.
by supercomputerguru August 1, 2011
First they thought it was a hardware problem, then they said it was a software problem. Eventually they figured out it was a fleshware problem. (eg. the person using the computer made a mistake)
by Lutie October 5, 2007