The first public discussion of the Colossus came several years earlier, in a paper by I. J. "Jack" Good, "Some Future Social Repercussions of Computers," in the journal International Journal of Environmental Studies​ 1 (1970), 67-79. Good worked at Bletchley, although that was not known at the time. His paper talked about the evolution of generations of computers to a point where it would spontaneously say "Cogito Ergo Sum," and then shortly thereafter "I am that I am" (Book of Exodus, King James edition). Good's ideas also found their way into 2001, a Space Odyssey​_ where he served as a consultant to Kubrick.

I came across the paper a year or two later at the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City. 

Paul Ceruzzi
From: Dag Spicer <dspicer@computerhistory.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 7, 2022 11:12 AM
To: Michael Roy Williams <mwilliam@ucalgary.ca>; Brian Randell <brian.randell@newcastle.ac.uk>; Doron Swade <doron.swade@blueyonder.co.uk>
Cc: Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu>; don knuth <knuth-bug@cs.stanford.edu>
Subject: Here it is!
 

External Email - Exercise Caution

Los Alamos Conference… 1976.

 

Brian, as I’m sure you recall, you and Doc Coombs were the smash hit of the entire thing.


My mini-blog: https://computerhistory.org/blog/computings-woodstock/

 

The playlist of lectures: https://computerhistory.org/playlists/international-research-conference-on-the-history-of-computing/

 

(I hope it isn’t too irreverent to call it Woodstock… I tried to say something modern… the joke’s on me I suppose since Woodstock happened *before* the conference and is hardly considered modern anymore, albeit it did foreshadow some features of modernity).

Please let me know your thoughts… if you so wish.


Dag

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Dag Spicer

Senior Curator

Computer History Museum
Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.

Mountain View CA  94043
Tel: +1 650 810 1035

Revolution:  The First 2000 Years of Computing
Visit online!  http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/