[Atsushi has fallen victim to the DNS troll that sometimes eats messages intended for the list. Tom] Hi Paul, But let me also relay my thanks for digging up and sharing this document! I do think it's great for those in the community to be aware of key documents, as well as the higher order info that filters through about how key documents from this era are becoming accessible via declassification. I do support the SIG policy about circulating links vs. the documents themselves. Makes sense to me! Kudos to everyone involved!! - Atsushi (**Please excuse me if this message seems brief. Especially during my sabbatical year, I am trying to limit my replies to five (5) lines or less. I'm sure you'll appreciate this in turn!**) _________________________________________________________ Atsushi Akera Associate Professor, Department of Science and Technology Studies Rensselaer Polytechnic institute 110 8th Street Troy, NY 12180 USA cel: 518.300.0613/fx:518.276-2659/e:akeraa@rpi.edu /w: http://www.rpi.edu/~akeraa From: members-bounces@sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Haigh Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 12:01 PM To: 'Paul N. Edwards'; 'sigcis' Cc: 'Willard McCarty' Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] No large attachments allowed on the list (sorry Paul) Hello Paul and SIGCIS members, Our list is set with a maximum message size of 200KB, and attachments are in general frowned upon. This is for two reasons. First, we have over 300 members and not all of them are interested enough in any specific topic to force large attachments into their mailboxes, which can be a problem when people are on slower links or receiving messages wirelessly with limited data plans. Second, attachments do not archive or work for digest mode subscribers. The document does sound very interesting, and I urge Paul to upload it somewhere like Dropbox. The URL for the download can then be shared to all members, and will work correctly in the archive and digest versions of the list. Full list policies at http://www.sigcis.org/node/14. Best wishes, Tom From: members-bounces@sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Paul N. Edwards Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2014 7:23 AM To: sigcis Cc: Willard McCarty Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] ADSEC Final Report, 1950 - declassified, and attached here SIGCISers and SIGCISters - Courtesy of Prof. Willard McCarty, who dug this out with a FOIA request and some help from an archivist and others at Lincoln Labs, here is the 1950 final report of the Air Defense Systems Engineering Committee (ADSEC) - classified until now. Many of you will know that this committee, aka the Valley Committee (for its leader, MIT prof George Valley), played a major role in initiating the SAGE air defense system of the 1950s. It's a fascinating read for the organism/machine metaphors, the cybernetic thinking, and the view of what was seen as possible (and not possible). To me, one of the most interesting thing about it is the awareness that converting analog signals into digital form was even more of a stumbling block than computing itself, which is seen as a relatively trivial matter that would require mainly time to develop computers with enough capacity to track hundreds or thousands of airplanes at once. Best, Paul ___________________________ Paul N. Edwards Professor of <http://www.si.umich.edu/> Information and <http://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/> History, University of Michigan A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming <http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/vastmachine/index.html> (MIT Press, 2010) Terse replies are deliberate <http://five.sentenc.es/> (and better than nothing) University of Michigan School of Information <http://www.si.umich.edu/> 3439 North Quad 105 S. State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285 (734) 764-2617 (office) (206) 337-1523 (fax) pne.people.si.umich.edu