The Intrapersonal Computer

A computer singing "Daisy Bell" as first recorded by an IBM 704 computer in 1961.

When Harry Dacre, an English composer, first came to the United States, he brought with him a bicycle, for which he was charged a customs fee. His friend joked: 'It's lucky you didn't bring a bicycle built for two, otherwise you'd have to pay double duty.' Dacre was so inspired by the phrase 'bicycle built for two' that he decided to incorporate it into a song. That song, Daisy Bell, first became successful in a London music hall, in a performance by Katie Lawrence. Tony Pastor was the first one to sing it in the United States.

However, probably the most famous appearance of the song was in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey the evil intelligent HAL 9000 computer during its deactivation loses its mind and degenerates to singing "Daisy". Which was done as an obvious homage to the real-life programming of an IBM 7094 to sing the song.

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• Daisy Bell
• HAL 9000
• Computer singing
• intrapersonal comptuer
• IBM 7094
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• IBM 7030 Stretch
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