Post on 13-Feb-2016
description
Using the Inhuman to Stop the Unthinkable
CHID370/COM302Winter 2007
Lecture 1
Bomb• Heat• The Blast• Radiation
The “Little Boy” casing replicaCourtesy of Wikipedia
• The Mushroom Cloud Over Hiroshima August, 6, 1945
• The Manhattan Project as an example of “Big Science”
National Defense Research Council
• Vannevar Bush first Chairman
• 6.5 million dollars• Later subsumed
under Office of Scientific Research and Development
• Created number of labs, radar, sonar, Manhattan Project Bush with Differential Analyzer, 1945
Military-Industrial ComplexA new and powerful
configuration between . . .
Military--provides the market
Business--provides production capabilities
University--provides the know-how
Eisenhower popularizes the term-17 Jan 1961
President Eisenhower, 1956
“ This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
ENIAC• Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator• First large scale digital
computer• First application-
Hydrogen bomb• Massive! 17,468 vacuum
tubes• 30 tons• Input punch cards• Six women worked as
programmers
Here comes “Joe”• 1949-USSR
successfully tests atomic bomb in Kazakhastan
• “Joe 1” or “First Lightning”
• Move from a mentality of “offense/defense” to one of control
The Cold War
Getting the human out of the loop
• Calculations would take too long or not possible
• Human error• Experiences beyond human
affective capabilities• Not to expose humans to so much
damage
The legacy• Computing wouldn’t have become a
commercial application without the military
• Calculate, command, communicate• A product of relationships between
the military, university, industry• Stimulus to the post-war electronics
industry• Implicated in the inhuman