amotht@mist.cs.orst.edu (Thomas R. Amoth) (12/21/90)
Scientific American ST reference.
ST fans recall some of the "Hollywood computers" that have appeared in
various eposodes (for example, "Returns of the Archons" and the one
with Gary Seven whose name escapes me at the moment). These
"machines" go " . . . blink . . . blink . . . blink . . . ."
There was also a similar machine in a Tarzan episode in which the
"blink . . . blink" computer was predicting the Tarzan's moves
(it starring Ron Ely as the "educated" Tarzan). Needless to say,
anybody with any knowledge of computers at all is firmly convinced
those machines look unrealistic.
But now we are presented with an ironic twist in the Jan. '91
Scientific American, p.100 article "Calculating Reality." When you
read the following quote (middle of p.107), keep in mind this is in a
serious article describing attempts to make a new generation of
REAL supercomputers and some of the problems encountered therein:
Precisely how the internal mechanisms will scale up is still
proprietary, Hillis says. Indeed, company designers even
refuse to comment on whether the CM-3 will sport the flashing
red lights that make the current model resemble a prop from
a Star Trek set.
I refer anybody who is curious enough to want to see a picture to the
June '87 Scientific American, p.109 in an article titled, "The
Connection Machine."
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--amotht@cs.orst.edu
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