Thinking Machines event tomorrow, free online streaming
Hello SIGCIS, I'll be talking tomorrow (remotely) at an event at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany. The museum is displaying an iconic Connection Machine 2, thanks in large part to the energy of artist and former Thinking Machines designer Tamiko Thiel in getting the machines into major museums. My talk "Why Did They Say The Machines Were Thinking?" will provide some historical context for the 1980s regarding the AI brand, ARPA's history of AI funding, and the Strategic Computing Initiative. I noticed that the livestream links are right there on the event page with no signup required, so thought I would circulate a last minute notification to the list to see if anyone is interested The event runs from 2pm Central European time on Friday, with two further sessions on Saturday. Full program with streaming links at https://zkm.de/en/2026/03/envisioning-ai-legacy-and-impact-of-the-connection -machine. Other speakers include Danny Hillis, Brewster Kahle, and the MIT Museum (is that you, Debbie Douglas?). Tamiko Thiel herself has an interesting website on the Connection Machine and its legacy at https://tamikothiel.com/theory/cm_txts/ (particularly https://tamikothiel.com/cm/cm-30th.html). One of the themes of my forthcoming book The Brand That Wouldn't Die is that the technical contributions of 20th century AI-branded research centers in the 1960s and 70s were considerable but were all incidental to its supposed mission of achieving intelligence (e.g. timesharing systems, search algorithms, electronic publishing and text editing, etc.) Documenting the longer-term influence of ARPA's support for what looked at the time like a failed investment is interesting as example of this continuing in the 1980s. Best wishes, Tom Thomas Haigh Professor & Chair, UWM History Department 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>
Just confirming that all are welcome to join conference (https://zkm.de/en/2026/03/envisioning-ai-legacy-and-impact-of-the-connection...). The MIT Museum is one of the co-sponsors and we will be hosting a “watch party” (starting at 10 am Eastern Daylight Time) here at the museum if you happen to be in the Boston area and want to join us I did want to note that time difference. The Germany does not go onto Daylight Savings Time until Sunday so there is “only” a 5-hours difference between Cambridge and Karlsruhe. I have attached a modified version of the program that reflects Eastern US times but also includes the speakers, biographies, and abstracts. With warm regards, Debbie Douglas From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of thomas.haigh--- via Members <members@lists.sigcis.org> Date: Thursday, March 26, 2026 at 12:53 PM To: members@sigcis.org <members@sigcis.org> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Thinking Machines event tomorrow, free online streaming Hello SIGCIS, I’ll be talking tomorrow (remotely) at an event at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany. The museum is displaying an iconic Connection Machine 2, thanks in large part to the energy of artist and former Thinking Machines designer Tamiko Thiel in getting the machines into major museums. My talk “Why Did They Say The Machines Were Thinking?” will provide some historical context for the 1980s regarding the AI brand, ARPA’s history of AI funding, and the Strategic Computing Initiative. I noticed that the livestream links are right there on the event page with no signup required, so thought I would circulate a last minute notification to the list to see if anyone is interested The event runs from 2pm Central European time on Friday, with two further sessions on Saturday. Full program with streaming links at https://zkm.de/en/2026/03/envisioning-ai-legacy-and-impact-of-the-connection.... Other speakers include Danny Hillis, Brewster Kahle, and the MIT Museum (is that you, Debbie Douglas?). Tamiko Thiel herself has an interesting website on the Connection Machine and its legacy at https://tamikothiel.com/theory/cm_txts/ (particularly https://tamikothiel.com/cm/cm-30th.html). One of the themes of my forthcoming book The Brand That Wouldn’t Die is that the technical contributions of 20th century AI-branded research centers in the 1960s and 70s were considerable but were all incidental to its supposed mission of achieving intelligence (e.g. timesharing systems, search algorithms, electronic publishing and text editing, etc.) Documenting the longer-term influence of ARPA’s support for what looked at the time like a failed investment is interesting as example of this continuing in the 1980s. Best wishes, Tom Thomas Haigh Professor & Chair, UWM History Department 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>
Dear all: I am pleased to announce that the English and German editions of my new book are now available. For further details please see: Bruderer, H. (2026). Turning Points in the Analog and Digital World. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17822921 ACM, New York Bruderer, H. (2026). Wendepunkte in der analogen und digitalen Welt. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17455914 De Gruyter, Berlin Bruderer, H. (2026). Bruderer: Short list of books on the history of science and technology, March 2026. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18778447 Many thanks. Best wishes, Herbert Bruderer (formerly ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Bruderer Informatik Seehaldenstraße 26 Postfach 47 CH-9401 Rorschach Switzerland Telefon +41 71 855 77 11
participants (3)
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Deborah Douglas -
herbert.bruderer＠bluewin.ch -
thomas.haigh＠gmail.com