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Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Better Mind the Computer



An interesting Horizon documentary from the 1980s about how computers were a step away from making us into pets.  I find it particularly fascinating because it comes from a time when even computer engineers had very limited day-to-day experience with computers.  I've been dealing with the things since the punch card days when my university had "a" computer and the more I watch them progress, the more convinced I am that computers are just very fast and very stupid machines rather than nascent silicon gods.

The Eliza segment is the most enlightening, though the documentary writer doesn't realise it.  So is the summing up at the end that shows one man who dearly wishes that he'd been born a slave.
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