In the early 70s, when I was about 10 or maybe 11 years of age, my brother, eight years older than me, got a job with a computer company in Dallas. I remember thinking, he must be really smart, to get a job like that. I don’t remember what his job title was or his job description, probably, because no one really talked about it. And they probably didn’t talk about it, because my parents didn’t really know either. The most I knew about computers was that companies and the government used them to preform tasks.
Computers were something, that because they didn’t effect me in any real way, I mean I was just a child, they were not something I thought about. The television, now that was something I thought about. How do those images just appear on the screen in front of me? When I would lay on the floor in front of the T.V., with a pillow tucked under my head watching my favorite shows, I would think, I know the images come from far away, but how do they get from there to here? hmmm
My brother didn’t keep the job for long with the computer company. He said, it wasn’t the job and that he liked the job. It was just Dallas — too much concrete for his taste. In the late 80s though, he bought an IBM personal computer and that I didn’t know about until almost 20 years later.
I married in the late 70s and five years after that I started a family with my husband. I romanticized marriage and having a family and hindsight being what it is, I should never have done that. If you’ve ever seen the movie, “War of the Roses“, that movie actually described our relationship.
In the late 90s on an evening news show, like “60 Minutes” or “20/20”, I can’t remember which one I was watching, it was so long ago, and I can’t find it in anyone’s archives. However, there was a segment in the show, they titled it, “Information Super Highway“. In the middle of washing evening dishes and putting the children to bed, the show was on and as soon as they announced that segment, they got my attention. What is this, super highway?
During the show I learned that computers were networked together and that a person could be in their home, yet working and making a living; working for a company, completing tasks that had been assigned to them. I remember seeing a man standing; behind him was a large living room window, with a view of the mountains, just on the other side of the window. His desk was in front of the window and on it was a desktop computer and in his hand was a cup of coffee. He took a sip of his coffee.
They talked about how through the use of computers and employers hiring work at home employees, soon there would be less traffic on the road ways, during commute times — thus the term, Super Highway. It’s kind of funny now looking back, because it seems I’m not the only one who fantasizes. Of course that evening and watching that show, I was in fantasy land once again. This time thinking that if I could get a job like that I could be at home with my children and there would be money in the bank to financially support them and the, war of the roses, would stop.
Wow, that was 34-35 years ago.
In 1961 a sausage factory in Troy Ohio, employed a computer to calculate how to blend a variety of slaughterhouse oddments. (Life International Magazine, published in 1961 March 27, article title, “The Machines are Gaining on Us”)
And why not. As that is what a computer is, a big calculating machine.
The computer was informed by means of coded holes punched into 100 yellow, green and brown cards, what meat cuts were on hand and their current pricing. After it rifled through the deck of cards, 36 minutes later it punched out a most profitable bologna formula … (pg69)
Machine language …
Before they could operate, all numbers had to be converted to the binary system of zeros and ones, basically without a programmer a computer is stupid. A human programmer had to prepare punch cards or a magnetic tape, which would direct the machine to operate. However, to cut out the middleman, some machines came prerecorded on tape with their ‘basic training’ built right in.
“They are employed so widely that they are already having an extensive influence on the lives of people everywhere, in every way imaginable. Where-as five years ago there were indeed only a few dozen computer installations, mostly clumsy million-dollar affairs used by atomic physicists and mathematicians to solve scientific problems, there are now 5,000 in action in the U.S., the country which thus far employs a majority of the machines. These range from desk-sized models that can be bought for a mere $50,000 up to giants that fill six-story buildings and cost as much as $7 million.” (pg69)
Every once in a while there would be a troublemaker computer.
Rhode Island U.S. Post Office, begged the public not to put Christmas stickers on packages and envelopes, as the computer would mistake them for foreign postage. A girl employed in the order department of a publishing house was asked about a large missing shipment of books. She was said to have replied: ‘‘It’s the machine. We can’t do a thing with it. We can’t find where it put your order. We don’t know where it puts anything.” (pg 71)
From U.S. Air Defense to predictions in (Kennedy’s) U.S. Elections at times computers would cause embarrassments, but none so great that the situation was irreversible, as the machines were setup to require a human intervention to deploy important decisions.
The computer technicians, became influential in business and were referred to as the ‘New Class’; they would often get two – three job offers a week from Headhunters. There were 10,000 computer salesman in the U.S.; they sold and installed computers. Often their customers would offer them ‘push spots’ within the company.
In the article, the computer was referred to, as a Robot …
“The possible dangers of thinking machines were foreseen back in 1920 by the brilliant Czech playwright Karel Capek, who invented the word ‘‘robot.”’ In his play, R.U.R. (the initials stand for Rossum’s Universal Robots), the setting is a factory where nearly human automata are manufactured. One particularly bright robot named Radius has a neurotic fit and smashes several statues, a symbolic act against the human arts.” (pg70)
“Our safeguard is that, no matter how intelligent we are able to make computers, we can always reach down and pull out the plug.” (from article; computer expert Frank Matthews)
Can we … ?
In the article it was expressed that eventually the machines would be able to think for themselves by studying their environment. A new machine called Perceptron, had been built by Cornell psychologist, Dr. Frank Rosenblatt, with the capability identify new shapes similar to what it had seen before and future versions will hear spoken words.
“If devices like the Perceptron,”’ says one expert, ‘‘can really learn effectively by themselves, we will be approaching the making of a true robot, fantastic as that sounds. But remember, all this was begun and devised by human brains, so humans—if they take care—will remain supreme.”
But there was another view of the future computer designers would tell. It was of a programmer that whatever question he tasked the computer with, it always come up with the right answer. Fed up, he asked yet another question, “Is there a God?” … The computer whirs gently, its lights flicker, its coils buzz and hum, and at last it clicks out its answer: THERE IS NOW. (pg 74)