JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

The following is an interesting, unclassified report on the future of the computer, from the archives at the National Security Agency.  “Time Is . Time Was· Time Is Past Computers for Intelligence” by Howard Campaigne offers an interesting look at what the future might hold for computation from an analyst who worked for what would become one of the U.S. government premier institutions for implementing new ideas in computation.  It ends with a surprising six-page bibliography (“Bibliography on Extending Scope of Computers”) which is the same length as this entire short paper. 

“If a thinking machine can be built, then it must be done; it is a matter of self-respect. Just as a man must be put on the moon, just as Mount Everest had to be climbed, just as the poles had to be visited, just as a flying machine had to be made no matter what the arguments against it, so a machine must be made which can think.”

“I must comment on a statement I have seen that soon the chess champion will be a machine! This is fatuous. Bicycles are not used in the Olympic footraces; if they were, a cyclist would be world champion. When the rules of chess are amended to prohibit mechanical aids, that will be a clue that one of our subgoals is being approached.”

The entire article can be read here.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON EXTENDING SCOPE OF COMPUTERS

S. Amarel, “On the Automatic Formation of a Computer Program whichRepresents
a Theory,” Self Organizing Systems, Spartan Books, Washington,
D. C., 1962.

A. M. Andrew, “Learning Machines,” Paper 3-6, Symposium on the Mechanization
of Thought Processes, Teddington, England, November 1958.

James B. Angell, The Need and MeUM for Self-Repairing Circuits, Technical
Report No. 4654-2, USAF Contract AF33(616)-7726, Stanford Electronics
Laboratories.