using the inhuman to stop the unthinkable

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