New Media Reader pp. 35 - 72, and Borges Documentary

Timeline:
1940 - Vannevar Bush's "Iron Triangle". Military-Industrial-Academic.
1943 - British Colossus computers under construction.
1945 - Publication of Bush's "As we may think"
Early 1950's-Computerized billing systems are in use at businesses.
1951- Hopper programs the first compiler, programming languages enter use.

Pages 35-72 of The New Media Reader dealt very much with the thoughts of men who experienced the earliest stages of the computer revolution. As such, their writings are filled with wonder and concern at the power of the machine and the implications of that power.

The most interesting part of Vannevar Bush's As We May Think is of course the "Memex" machine. It is a theoretical precursor to the modern personal computer, and as a mechanical marvel represents only a fraction of the potentialities of the World Wide Web. Bush's machine can amazingly store huge amounts of data via microfilm and other methods of recording. He envisions scientists and scholars sharing data and links with each other to form not only new methods of storage but essentially new methods of research and thought. Little could Bush imagine the modern day computer. Free of mechanical parts like spools of microfilm, yet full of entirely digitized libraries. The power of the Web mirrors Bush's ideas of massive-scale information sharing, if all Memex machines the world over could communicate and exchange information and links with one another. Bush's work illustrates the power that new media have on imagination. Bush could see a computational and information revolution occurring in the near future, but the actual form it would take would be even more bewildering.
Turing's Computing Machinery and Intelligence is an interesting piece because it deals with all arguments about artificial intelligence and computer power in one fell swoop, even before the coining of the term artificial intelligence. He immediately disposes of unscientific arguments about the nature of the soul, among other theological issues. He even seems somehow opposed to using the word "intelligence" when describing a machine. His essay simply puts forth that one day a computer may be powerful enough to trick a human in his "imitation game" scenario. I found especially interesting his ideas on a learning computer which, instead of being fully programmed at inception, instead is "raised" like a child by a team of technicians. A computer programmed in such a way, it seems, would offer the best chance of winning at Turing's imitation scenario.
Like the other essay's, Wiener's Men, Machines, and the World About had an air of awe at the power now imparted unto humanity via our machines. He openly discusses that at this point almost anything is feasible, given enough resources and man hours he foresees the automatic factory and both its military and civilian uses. The most potent part of the essay, however, is his warning against technological idolatry. He compares technology to the biblical "golden calf" and reminds us how easily we become awe struck by our own creations. Perhaps the most important part of his message is when he writes, "We shall have to realize that while we may make the machines our gods and sacrifice men to machines, we do not have to do so. If we do so, we deserve the punishment of the idolators". Wiener seeks to remind us that it is we who control machines, and choose how to use them, not the other way around.

The documentary on Borges was interesting, especially as a supplement to the class, because it portrayed the author as he was, a rather lofty nontechnical sort of person. The Garden of Forking Paths has had a large influence on computer science and on the nature of the web. Yet, it can be said with some certainty this was not Borges' intent. As a writer of fiction, Borges' simply was making an interesting commentary on the nature of information flow through time, and our relationship to that flow. Borges serves as an excellent example of how all things influence each other. A lofty writer of short stories, often fantastical ones, is named as a major influence of the technological age.