Tag: Military

Computer Chronicles: Computers & the Pentagon - Part Two (1986).
"A look at the uses of computer hardware and software in the Defense Department. Shot on location at various military installations around the country. Featured are demonstrations of SDI, the Strategic Defense Initiative, the AEGIS combat control system on board the USS Valley Forge advanced navy cruiser, and the Air Force's Advanced Sensory Exploitation System using distributed networks and artificial intelligence to detect enemy threats." 1986. (more)

Computer Chronicles: Computers and the Pentagon - Part One (1986).
"The world's biggest computer user is the U.S. government and the military in particular. This program reviews the military uses of computer technology. Shot on location at various research centers around the country. Featured are the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Advanced Decision Systems in Mountain View, California. Demonstrations include the Pilot's Assistant and the Battlefield Commander's Assistant. Also flight and battle simulators from Singer Link." 1986. (more)

Singularity Summit 2007 Keynote Speaker - Rodney Books: The Singularity, A Period Not An Event.
Whatever writes future history will look back at what we are calling the singularity not as a single event but as a period of time. The singularity period will encompass a time where a collection of technologies were invented, developed, and deployed in fits and starts, driven not by the imperative of the singularity itself, but by the normal economic and sociological pressures of human affairs. A Hollywood treatment of the singularity would have a world just like today's, plus the singularity, as a singular event. In reality, the world will be changing continuously due to rapid growth in technologies that are both related and unrelated to the singularity itself. The future will be embedded in a different world than the one we inhabit. And the AI systems we create will not have the same desires, beliefs, and goals as today-us. Tomorrow-us will be much better equipped for the changes that will take place in our world. This talk will explore how things might unfold and how we will transform ourselves along the way. September 8, 2007. (more)

The ENIAC and its makers: Eighteen-thousand vacuum tubes and a box of light bulbs.
On Valentine's Day sixty years ago, the world read the first newspaper accounts of a mysterious, new computing machine in Philadelphia. It wasn't the first computer ever made, but on that day, public awareness of modern technology took its first great post-war jump forward." Featuring Presper Eckert, John Mauchly, and ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. 1946. (more)

Wired Science Interviews: Red Whittaker, Roboticist.
Ziya Tong talks to Red Whittaker about his career path, autonomous robots in hazardous environments and emergency situations, the DARPA Urban Challenge, his favorite robot, and much more. Film clips of his robots at work are interspersed throughout the discussion. 2007. (more)