February 2025 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Anyone in the UK want a talk March 19 to April 2?
by Brian Randell 06 Feb '25

06 Feb '25

Hi: I arranged for Tom to be invited to Newcastle three weeks ago. (This was in order to give his “Artificial Intelligence: The Brand that Wouldn’t Die” lecture, but it also gave me an opportunity to debate further with Tom his attempted re-definition of the concept of programmability! 😊) Tom had a sizeable, and very appreciative, audience at Newcastle for his talk - I can warmly recommend others elsewhere in the UK to take up his offer to repeat this talk when he returns to the Newton Institute in March/April - and to read the excellent recent CACM series on which the talk is based. Cheers Brian Randell — School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 (0)786 7805578<tel:+447867805578> URL = https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html

1 0

History of AI series in CACM
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 04 Feb '25

04 Feb '25

Hello SIGCIS, CACM recently put up the online version of the fifth and final part in my history of AI series, which has been appearing slowly over the past year and a half. These add up to a very short history of AI from 1955 to the present. 1. Conjoined Twins: Artificial Intelligence and the Invention of Computer Science," Communications of the ACM 66:6 (June, 2023):33-37. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3593007 2. "There Was No 'First AI Winter'," Communications of the ACM 66:12 (December 2023):35-39. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3625833 3. "How the AI Boom Went Bust," Communications of the ACM 67:2 (February 2024):22-26. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3634901 4. "Between the Booms: AI in Winter," Communications of the ACM 67:11 (November 2024):18-23. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3688379 5. "Artificial Intelligence Then and Now," Communications of the ACM 68:2 (February 2025). https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/artificial-intelligence-then-and-now/ A somewhat less short (circa 50K words) version of this story will be appearing as an MIT Press book with the working title Artificial Intelligence: The History of a Brand. Other than more detail, context, and human background a main difference is that each short chapter in the book features a relatively detailed case study of a classic AI-branded system. This is a short history of AI in all senses, focusing on the brand itself and the relationship of AI to the development of computer science as a discipline. Given the huge industry focused on writing about modern AI the focus is almost exclusively on AI prior to the recent boom, with a brief discussion of contemporary approaches there primarily as a contrast. In all formats, I've been making an effort to showcase a variety of interesting work that's been appearing on the topic from younger scholars over the last few years. In November I was at the IWM in Vienna as the Senior Digital Humanism fellow. While in town I also agreed to teach a compressed graduate course for the compute science students at the technical university, using a draft of the book as the core text. You can see the syllabus at https://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/TUW If anyone is interested in trying out a newer draft of the book for teaching in the summer or fall then let me know and I'll see what I can do. Best wishes, Tom Thomas Haigh Professor & Chair, History Department, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee Chair, IEEE Computer Society History Committee Director, ACM History Committee Turing Awards Project See more at www.tomandmaria.com/Tom <http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom>

2 2

THIS FRIDAY @ 2PM ET: Jesper Juul on Too Much Fun: The Five Lives of the Commodore 64 Computer
by Laine Nooney 03 Feb '25

03 Feb '25

Join us Friday, February 7, as *ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories *hosts scholar Jesper Juul for a talk about his book *Too Much Fun: The Five Lives of the Commodore 64 Computer.* The event will be at 2PM ET on the *ROMchip *Twitch channel, https://www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal. Get tickets HERE <https://www.tickettailor.com/events/romchipajournalofgamehistories/1498794> and sign up for our newsletter <https://romchip.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=27c1594af9abf2dc80455091b&…> to never miss an update. **Tickets serve as calendar reminders for the event; they are not required to attend. Head to https://www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal to join the talk on Feb 7** *About the Book* *The surprising history of the Commodore 64, the best-selling home computer of the 1980s—the machine that taught the world that computing should be *fun *.* The Commodore 64 (C64) is officially the best-selling desktop computer model of all time, according to *The Guinness Book of World Records*. It was also, from 1985 to 1993, the platform for which most video games were made. But although it sold at least twice as many units as other home computers of its time, such as the Apple II, ZX Spectrum, or Commodore Amiga, it is strangely forgotten in many computer histories. In *Too Much Fun*, Jesper Juul argues that the C64 was so popular because it was so versatile, a machine developers and users would reinvent again and again over the course of 40 years. First it was a serious computer, next a game computer, then a computer for showcasing technical brilliance (graphical *demos* using the machine in seemingly impossible ways), then a struggling competitor, and finally a retro device whose limitations are now charming. The C64, Juul shows, has been ignored by history because it was too much fun. Richly illustrated in full color, this book is the first in-depth examination of the C64's design and history, and the first to integrate US and European histories. Containing interviews with Commodore engineers as well as an insightful look at C64 games, music, and software*,* *Too Much Fun* will appeal to those who used a Commodore 64, those interested in the history of computing and video games and computational literacy, or just those who wish their technological devices would last longer. *About the Author*Jesper Juul coedits the MIT Press Playful Thinking series. His previous books include *Half-Real*,*The Art of Failure*, and *Handmade Pixels*. He is Associate Professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen and has taught at MIT and New York University. His first computer was a Commodore 64, on which he wrote games and demos. *Upcoming Events* February 14 @ 2PM: Tom Boellstorff and Braxton Soderman discuss their co-authored book, *Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie *[MORE INFO <https://www.tickettailor.com/events/romchipajournalofgamehistories/1498801> ] February 22 @ 11AM-11PM ET: ROMchip Twitch Fundraiser Stream, ft Phil Salvador, merritt k, qdot, Paolo Pedercini, tinahacks, Jason Scott and more! Come through for 12 hours of games, prizes, and historical hijinks. [MORE INFO <https://donate.romchip.org/>]. *About ROMchip**ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories <https://www.romchip.org/>* is a free, online scholarly journal for game history. *ROMchip *develops, edits, and publishes ad-free, open access game history research for a range of audiences. It supports any discipline of work enlivening the history of games in local and global contexts, and embraces diversity in how game history is studied, documented, collected, preserved, and practiced. *ROM**c**hip* is a donation-based organization fiscally sponsored by The Hack Foundation <https://hackclub.com/fiscal-sponsorship/> (d.b.a. Hack Club), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN: 81-2908499). -- Laine Nooney <http://www.lainenooney.com/> Associate Professor | MCC <http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> @ NYU <http://www.nyu.edu/> | they/them Managing Editor | ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories <https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal> | Join our Newsletter <http://eepurl.com/crCul1> -Need to make an appt? Click, don't email: https://calendar.app.google/V9ZuMRWEKnnUBdQ56 -Probably typed by voice recognition, so please cherish typos

1 0