Computer History - A British View - Part 3 of 3

[pbizunow]

profound words at 3:46

[Baxxter101]

7:55 aw snap, whats going to happen when the computers dont want to be slaves anymore!?!?

[Morahman7vnNo2]

Fitting the film ends with the sound of a typewriter.

[Bullettube]

I'm amused at all the commenters who are amazed at what we had back in 1969. I built my first 2bit demo unit in school in 1968 as part of a class on electricity using transistors that were almost as big as my thumb! What we got wrong was how wonderful all the new jobs would be, when in fact the jobs became mundane and tedious. Of course, these same wonderful jobs were then outsourced to cheaper overseas labor.

[ereignisfelder]

and I'm still using the same keyboard

[100Hertzzz]

that touch pen game at 6:16 is nearly at the the level of some basic modern games! i'm genuinely shocked that we had these technologies way back in 1969... astounding.

[Starwins]

This revolution has led us to the age of porn

[xxkil]

those keyboards are great like changing channel on a old telly BE DOING!!!!!!

[Megajunkie01001]

They were much more advanced in 1969 than I could have imagined, really the computer hasn't changed much since then, they have just gotten faster and more memory in a smaller space. Also this was long before the personal computer was even imagined.

[MarkTheMorose]

Thanks for posting, a fascinating look back at the dawn of the use of computers outside the government/military/education sectors. Also some very accurate predictions of how the computer could be 'misused' with terrible consequences for people.

[rajithaify]

superb!

[thregar]

thanks for posting.. not sure we've yet solved the problem the professor mentions at the end of the film.

[jaymorpheus1]

Around 8:15 or so (boom) (then machine sounds) "oh no, what the heck is that?!" (mini gunshots bombombom) "I am the t-1001, i'm baaack, now shut up and bow" dude: "you see what i'm saying, they're already in control ahhh 8-x"

[mettlebomb]

how things will work, was on the discovery channel I think, great videos I never thought they knew so much but of course,in their time alot of this was more on the it might happen side of things.

[mettlebomb]

this was their version of how things will work

[ThaNorwegianDude]

dude i didnt know they had touch screens with 3d options! O_o

[tomtheebomb]

i wonder if the scientists featured thought one day we would watch this very video on a computer!

[Molo9000]

The oriental game that is normally played on the kind of board shown at 5:52 is "Go".

It has extremely simple rules (something like 3 or 4 rules) but is so complex that (unlike chess) computers still can't beat good human players.

Is our human brain so great or are computers just not developed enough?

I wonder if they imagined back then, that 40years later we'd have more computing power in our living rooms than they had in a whole country.

[decadentgamer]

or maybe it's because nobody feels the need to place that much effort into something that is irrelevant compared to everything else we actually care about. Computers are developed enough...

[chris2002Rocklin]

@decadentgamer "Computers are developed enough"

For what? The world never "needed" computers. They are a byproduct of world wars. Now that we endured the pain of the wars, we may as well exploit it for lifestyle enhancement.

Where does it end? When is it "enough"? Never, or any time. It does not matter much at all, in the greater scheme of life and death.

[evilferret132]

@Molo9000 humans far out do computers

[CoolDudeClem]

They had touch screens and 3D modelling in 1969? Wow I'm impressed!

[privateworldofwarft]

That takes some programing and power for a computer to learn from its mistakes.

[homerVSburns]

I'm suprised what 1960's computers were already able to do...

1960's computers rock :D

[privateworldofwarft]

lol yea like the touch screen dude. Thats crazy and 3D stuff too.  That typewriter computer is cool. It's still pretty old they program with paper geeze.

[Marmalade000000]

Yeah, terrible consequences indeed! What about all those viruses and worms we have today?

[janver22]

Well, all we know that those are also programs, so that means that viruses and worms can also be countered........... that's why we have ANTIVIRUSES........

[marhol]

very nice

[Emotionengne]

so much paper waste..but cool documentary.

[jacktharippares]

that is pretty cool , the computer learned how to play the game

[sbostedor]

so much has changed - yet so little has changed

[STOPTHEEU]

@sbostedor What s the next step? :P

[fitz0527]

pretty interesting video

[rctrue]

is that a touch screen??????

[dnebdal]

So it would seem. The light pens are neat, too.

[111olbap]

its not a touch screen. its a light gun. the screen shoots the pen, not vice versa. this was pioneered in the early 60s

[dnebdal]

Take another look at the segment from 00:26 to 00:38 - he's poking a finger at the screen to do things.

[111olbap]

You're right.

What most interests me is the continual redefinition of true artificial intelligence. In this film we're told that a computer which can outsmart a human in a board game is intelligent- but the Ai in any modern PC game is vastly more complex.

CONSUMER computers- not even supercomputers- now approach or match any currently quantifiable capacity for human 'intelligence' or 'ability' >>cont...

[111olbap]

You can buy a computer with as much memory capacity as we have been able to measure in the human brain- with data throughput approaching one sixth the measured human neural capacity and deductive reasoning capabilities vastly outstripping an entire country full of the finest mathematicians >>cont...

[111olbap]

And yet we continually redefine artificial intelligence each time we attain our previous definition. My question is why.

[dnebdal]

I'd guess it's because intelligence is a hard thing to define. There's several definitions of AI in use, and many things in use today do count under the weaker ones. The problematic one, "strong AI", is close to the problem of artificial consciousness - it requires a system that can solve anything a human can,

with no more preparation. That degree of generic problem recognition and solving is still a good way off.

[dnebdal]

So basically: We've got AI. It's just that now that we have it, something like "a program that can play chess well" doesn't seem that intelligent when you know how it works - at least if you compare it to the still elusive hard AI. That might be why we usually refer to them as "chess programs" instead of AI: They are solutions to a very (almost embarrassingly) specific problem. Do read the wikipedia article on AI, by the way, it's interesting. The one on expert systems, too. :)

[dnebdal]

Oh, and there is probably more work (and information) in a top-class chess program than in your average game AI, the latter isn't as complicated as you'd think. Hard, yes, but you can get away with a fairly small set of possible things to do, each of which isn't -that- difficult to implement. Besides, you don't usually consider future actions/reactions/etc to anywhere near the same depth as in a board game.

[111olbap]

Thats whats so interesting- the apparent quantifications that we can observe as laypersons are very misleading. I realise average AI is very simple swarm and avoidance logic- in essence, much less intelligent than a retarded ant.

[dnebdal]

Mh. It's sort of an artifact of how we like to answer with examples ("good at math" and the like) when asked what intelligence is. For most of them, it is possible to make a computer good at it, but that's sort of beside the point. (I'm sure someone with a background in semantics would have something to add here.)

[gewehrmeister3777]

Hes touching wire contacts on the kinescope(picture tube) screen. Each contact is connected to a circuit that detects the change in capacitance resultant of touching the contact. Modern touch screens work on a similar principle but use grids of wires embedded in the screen face instead of dedicated contacts for a given area of screen.

[TwoBun]

A nice slice of human history. Most interesting that the computer architechture of those machines is fundamental.

[johnkollor]

Grate film, you've got to laugh at it thought, i mean my phone is smarter than all them computers put together. And its kinda funny coz if your reading this your on a PC or a PS3 or something that can use the internet. anyway cool video and thanks for the post. Oh yea and thows kids where really slow tipers

[g0blin]

Nice spelling

[johnkollor]

Cut me some slack i was using my PS3 system to leave that comment and im still not used to it.

[toresbe]

Absolutely excellent. Thanks a lot for putting it online.

[kanuniden]

it was a great film thank you so much