Part 19
The man-machine concept has grown into a science called, for the present at least, “synnoetics,” a coinage from the Greek words _syn_ and _noe_ meaning “perceive” and “together.” This science is defined as the treating of the properties of composite systems, consisting of configurations of persons, mechanisms, plant or animal organisms, and automata, whose main attribute is that their ability to invent, to create, and to reason—their mental power—is greater than the mental power of their components.
We get a not-too-fanciful look into the future in a paper by Dr. Louis Fein presented in the summer 1961 issue of _American Scientist_, titled “Computer-related Sciences (Synnoetics) at a University in 1975.” Dr. Fein is an authority on computers, as builder of RAYDAC in 1952, and as founder and president of the Computer Control Company. The paper ostensibly is being given to alumni some years hence by the university president. Dr. Fein tells us that students in the Department of Synnoetics study the formal languages used in communication between the elements of a synnoetic system, operations research, game theory, information storage, organization and retrieval, and automatic programming. One important study is that of error, called Hamartiology, from the Greek word meaning “to miss the mark.”
The speaker tells us that this field was variously called cybernetics, information science, and finally computer-related science before being formally changed to the present synnoetics. A list of the courses available to undergraduates includes:
Von Neumann Machines and Turing Machines
Elements of Automatic Programming
Theory, Design, and Construction of Compilers
Algorithms: Theory, Design, and Applications
Foundations of the Science of Models
The Theory, Design, and Application of Non-Numeric Models
Heuristics
Self-Programming Computers
Advice Giving—Man to Machine and Machine to Man
Simulation: Principles and Techniques
Pattern Recognition and Learning by Automata
The Grammar, Syntax, and Use of Formal Languages for Communication Between Machine and Machine and Between Man and Man
Man-Automaton Systems: Their Organization, Use, and Control
Problem-Solving: an Analysis of the Relationship Between the Problem-Solver, the Problem, and the Means for Solution
Measurements of the Fundamental Characteristics of the Elements of Synnoetic Systems
Of course, synnoetics spills over into the other schools, as shown in the following typical courses taught:
Botany Department Machine-Guided Taxonomy in Botany
Business School Synnoetic “Business Executives”
Engineering School Theory of Error and Equipment Reliability Design of Analog and Digital Computers
Humanities Department Theory of Creative Processes in the Fine Arts
Law School Patent and Precedence Searches with Computers The Effect of Automata on the Legislative and Judicial Process
Mathematics Department The Theory of Graphs and the Organization of Automata
Medical School Computer-Aided Medical Diagnosis and Prescription for Treatment
Philosophy The Relationships between Models and the Phenomena That Are Modeled
Psychology Department Studies in Intuition and Intellect of Synnoetic Systems Simulation in the Behavioral Sciences
Sociology Department Synnoetics in Modern Society
The speaker proudly refers to the achievement of the faculty mediator and a computer in settling the “famous” strike of 1970.
He simply got both sides first to agree that each would benefit by concentrating attention—not on arguing and finally settling the issues one at a time—but on arguing and finally settling on a program for an automaton. This program would evaluate the thousands of alternative settlements and would recommend a small class of settlements each of which was nearly optimum for both sides. The automaton took only 30 minutes to produce the new contract last year. It would have taken one year to do this manually, and even then it would have been done less exhaustively. Agreeing on the program took one week. Of course, you have already heard that in many areas where people are bargaining or trying to make optimum decisions such as in the World Nations Organization, in the World Court, and in local, federal, and world legislative bodies, there is now serious consideration being given to convincing opposing factions to try to agree on a program and having once agreed on it, the contract or legislation or judgment or decision produced with the program would be accepted as optimum for both sides. Automata may also be provided to judges and juries to advise them of the effects of such factors as weight of evidence on verdicts in civil cases.
Dr. Fein makes an excellent case for the usefulness of the science of synnoetics; the main point of challenge to his paper might be that its date is too conservatively distant. Of interest to us here is the idea of man and machine working in harmony for the good of both.
Another paper, “The Coming Technological Society,” presented by Dr. Simon Ramo at the University of California at Los Angeles, May 1, 1961, also discusses the possible results of man-machine cooperation during the remainder of the twentieth century. He lists more than a dozen specific and important applications for intellectronics in the decades immediately ahead of us. Law, medicine, engineering, libraries, money, and banking are among these. Pointing out that man is as unsuited for “putting little marks on pieces of paper” as he was for building pyramids with his own muscles, he suggests that our thumbprints and electronic scanners will take care of all accounting. Tongue in cheek, he does say that there will continue to be risks associated with life; for instance, a transistor burning out in Kansas City may accidentally wipe out someone’s fortune in Philadelphia.
The making of reservations is onerous busywork man should not have to waste his valuable time on, and the control of moving things too is better left to the machine for the different reason that man’s unaided brain cannot cope with complex and high-speed traffic arteries, be they in space or on Los Angeles freeways. Business and military management will continue to be aided by the electronic machine.
But beyond all these benefits are those more important ones to our brains, our society, and culture. Teaching machines, says Dr. Ramo, can make education ten times more effective, thus increasing our intellect. And this improved intellect, multiplied by the electronic machine into intellectronic brainpower, is the secret of success in the world ahead. Instead of an automated, robotlike regimented world that some predict, Ramo sees greater democracy resulting. Using the thumbprint again, and the speed of electronics, government of our country will be truly by the people as they make their feelings known daily if necessary.
Intellectronic legislation will extend beyond a single country’s boundaries in international cooperation. It will smash the language and communication barriers. It will permit and implement not only global prediction of weather, but global control as well. Because of the rapid handling of vast amounts of information, man can form more accurate and more logical concepts that will lead to better relations throughout the world. Summing up, Dr. Ramo points out that intellectronics benefits not only the technical man but social man as well:
The real bottleneck to progress, to a safe, orderly, and happy transition to the coming technological age, lies in the severe disparity between scientific and sociological advance. Having discussed technology, with emphasis on the future extension of man’s intellect, we should ask: Will intellectronics aid in removing the imbalance? Will technology, properly used, make possible a correction of the very imbalance which causes technology to be in the lead? I believe that the challenging intellectual task of accelerating social progress is for the human mind and not his less intellectual partner. But perhaps there is hope. If the machines do more of the routine, everyday, intellectual tasks and insure the success of the material operation of the world, man’s work will be elevated to the higher mental domains. He will have the time, the intellectual stature, and hence the inclination to solve the world’s social problems. We must believe he has the capability.
[Illustration:
_Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, Inc._
Information in many forms can be displayed with “polymorphic” data-processing systems. ]
Antedating synnoetics and intellectronics is another idea of such a relationship. In his book _The World, The Flesh and the Devil_, J. D. Bernal considers man’s replacement of various of his body’s parts with mechanical substitutes until the only organic remains would be his brain. This is a sort of wrong-end-to synnoetics, but in 1929 when the book was published there was already plenty of raw material for such a notion. Wooden legs and hooks or claws for hands, metal plates for bone material, for example; and the artificial heart already being developed. More recently we have seen the artificial kidney used, along with other organs. We have also added electronic gear to our organic components, for example the “pacemaker” implanted in many laggard hearts to keep them beating in proper cadence, plastic plumbing, and the like. There is a word for this sort of part-organic, part-mechanical man: the name “cyborg” for cybernetic organism was proposed by two New York doctors. Their technical definition of cyborg is “an exogenously extended organizational complex functioning as a homeostatic system.” There is of course strong precedent in nature for the idea of such a beneficial combination: symbiosis, the co-existence or close union of two dissimilar organisms. The shark and his buddy, the pilot fish, are examples; as are man and the many parasites to which he is host.
The idea of man being part of machine harks back to youthful rides in soapbox racers, and later experiences driving cars or flying aircraft. The pilot who flew “by the seat of his pants” in the early days easily felt himself part of the machine. As planes—and cars—grew bigger and more complex, this “one-manship” became more remote and harder to identify. The jet transport pilot may well have the feeling of handling a train when he applies force to his controls and must wait for it to be amplified through a servo system and finally act on the air stream. In the space age the man-machine combination not only survives but also flourishes. Arthur C. Clarke writes in a science-fiction story of a legless space man who serves well and happily in the weightlessness of his orbiting satellite station.
We have two stages of development, then, not necessarily sequential: man working with the machine and man as part of the machine. Several writers have suggested a third stage in which the machine gradually supplants the weaker human being much as other forms eased out the dinosaur of old. William O. Stapledon’s book, _Last and First Men_, describes immortal and literal giant brains. Many writers believe that these “brains” will not be man’s, but those of the machine, since frail humanity cannot survive in its increasingly hostile environment.
Arthur C. Clarke is most articulate in describing what he calls the evolutionary cycle from man to machine. As the discovery of tools by pre-man created man, so man’s invention of thinking machines set about the workings that will make _him_ extinct. Clarke theorizes that this breakthrough by man may well be his last, and that his machines will “think” him off the face of the earth!
[Illustration:
_Hughes Aircraft Company_
Withstanding underwater pressures, at depths too great for human divers, a Mobot vehicle demonstrates in this artist’s concept how it can perform salvage and rescue operations at the bottom of the ocean. ]
As we move into a technology that embraces communication at a distance of millions of miles, survival under death-dealing radiation, and travel at fantastic speeds, man’s natural equipment falters and he must rely on the machine both as muscle and brain. Intelligence arose from life but does not necessarily need life, in the sense we think of it, to continue. Thus the extension of man’s intellect by electronics as hailed by Dr. Ramo will lead ultimately to our extinction.
Clarke feels that the man-machine partnership we have entered, while mutually benevolent, is doomed to instability and that man with his human shortcomings will fall by the wayside, perhaps in space, which may well be the machine’s true medium. What will remain will be the intelligent machine, reduced as time goes on to “pure” intelligence free to roam where it will and do what it wants, a matterless state of affairs that even Clarke modestly disclaims the imagination to speculate upon.
Before writing man off as a lost cause, we should investigate a strong argument against such a take-over by the machine. Man stands apart from other creatures in his consciousness of himself. He alone seems to have the ability to ponder his fate, to reflect, and to write books about his thoughts and dreams. Lesser animals apparently take what comes, do what they have to do, and get through this life with a minimum of changing their environment and themselves. Thus far the machines man has built do not seem to be conscious of themselves. While “rational beings,” perhaps, they do not have the “ability to laugh” or otherwise show conscious awareness of their fate. A term applied to primitive mechanical beings is “plugsuckers.” They learn to seek out a wall socket or other form of energy and nourish themselves much as animals must do. Just where man himself switched from plugsucking and began to rewire his own world is a fuzzy demarcation, but he seems to have accomplished this.
Consciousness is subjective in the extreme, and thus far only in fiction have computers paused to reflect and consider what they have done and its effect on them. However, the machine-builder, if not yet the machine itself, is aware of this consciousness problem. The Hoffman Electronics Corporation recently published an advertisement in the form of a science-fiction story by A. E. Van Vogt. The hero is a defense vehicle, patrolling the Pacific more effectively because it thinks it is king of the Philippine Deep. Its name is Itself, and it has a built-in alter ego. Hoffman admits it has not produced a real Itself—yet, but points out calmly that the company’s business _is_ the conversion of scientific fiction to scientific fact.
It has been suggested that mechanical consciousness may evolve when the computer begins to reproduce itself, a startling conception blessed in theory by logicians and mathematicians, as well as philosophers. A crude self-replicating model has been built by scientists—a toy train that reproduces itself by coupling together the proper cars to copy the parent train, a whimsical reflection of Samuel Butler’s baby engines playing about the roundhouse door.
Self-reproducing machines may depend on a basic “cell” containing a blueprint of what it should look like when complete, which simply hunts around for the proper parts and assembles itself. In the process it may even make an improvement or two. Having finished, it will make a carbon copy of its blueprint and start another “baby” machine on the way. Writers on this subject—some under the guise of science-fiction—wonder at what point the _machines_ will begin to wonder about how _they_ came to be. Will they produce philosophic or religious literature, or will this step in evolution prove that consciousness was a bad mutation, like seven fingers or three heads, and drop it from the list of instructions?
Clarke admits that the take-over by the machines is centuries off; meantime we can enjoy a golden age of intellectronic partnership with the machine. Linus Pauling, pointing out that knowledge of molecular structure has taken away the mystery of life, hopes that a “molecular theory of thinking” will be developed and so improve man that he may remake his thoughts and his world. Mathematician John Williams believes that existing human intelligence can preserve its distinction only by withdrawing from competition with the machine and defining human intelligence rigorously enough to exclude that of the machines. He suggests using the computer not just for a molecular theory of thinking, but also in the science of genetics to _design_ our children!
Whatever lies ahead, it seems obvious that one of the most important things the computer can help us think about is the computer itself. It is a big part of our future.
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Index
Abacus, 5, 21, 22, 60, 85, 129, 178, 181
Abstracting computer, 245, 248
Accuracy analog computer, 82 digital computer, 87
Ackerman, 110
ADAM computer, 258
Adaptive principle, 205
Adders, 107, 108, 115
Adding machine, 129
Addition, computer, 106
Address, computer, 63
Advertising, use of computer, 180
AID, 183, 184
AIEE, 254
Aiken, 46
Air Force, 6, 132, 133, 151, 160, 182, 225
Airborne computer, 90, 154, 158, 162
AiResearch Mfg. Co., 69
Airline reservations, computer, 58, 183, 184
Algebra, Boolean, 8, 110, 119
Alpha rhythm, 126
Alphanumeric code, 104
American Premium Systems, Inc., 175
Analog computer, 21, 45, 72, 74, 80, 125, 203 direct, 76, 79 direct-current, 76 discrete, 80 indirect, 76, 79 mechanical differential analyzer, 76 scaling, 76
Analytical engine, 36, 37
AND gate, 112, 113, 117, 119
Antikythera computer, 25
Apollo computer, 182 space vehicle, 169
Applications, digital computer, 92
_A priori_ concept, 126, 135
APT computer, 209
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 235
Arabic numbers, 23
Archytas, 25
Arithmetic unit, computer, 51, 60
Aristotle, 26
Aristotelian logic, 109
_Arizona Journal_, 179
Army, U. S., 21, 78, 146, 259
_Ars Magna_, 28, 29
ARTOC, 157
Artron, 136
Ashby, W. Ross, 51, 124, 128, 251
ASC computer, 155
Associated Press computer system, 177
Asynchronous computer, 255
Athena computer, 52
Atlas missile, 4, 168
Atlas-Centaur missile, 169
Atomic Energy Commission, U. S., 149
Automatic control, 80, 203 pilot, 203
Automation, 26, 80, 173, 181, 201, 202, 203, 211, 217
Automaton, 26
Auto-parking, use of computer, 178
Autonetics, 207
AUTOPROMPT computer, 210
AUTOTAG, 156
AutoTutor teaching machine, 213, 225
B-29, 45, 77, 82
Babbage, 5, 35, 37, 41, 51
Babylonian arithmetic, 23
Ballistic computer, 83
Banking, 1, 172, 173
Bar Association, American, 152, 249
Battelle Memorial Institute, 195
Batten, Barton, Durstine, & Osborn, 180
Bell Telephone Laboratories, 4, 147, 241
Bendix Corp., 182, 190, 218
Bendix G-15 computer, 183, 188
Bernal, J. D., 264
Bernstein, Alex, 141
Bettelheim, Bruno, 144
BIAX memory units, 10
Bierce, Ambrose, 43, 121
BINAC computer, 7, 47
Binary, 98 digit, 55, 104 notation, 101, 103 pure, 102, 104 system, 85, 97, 99 variables, 114
Bionics, 7, 132, 135, 255
BIRDIE, 259
Birds, counting, 18
Bit, 55, 104
“Black box” concept, 50, 115
BLADES system, 191
Block diagram, 58
BMEWS, 159
Boeing Airplane Co., 186
Boltzmann equation, 158
Bomarc missile, 186
_Book of Contemplation_, 27
Book of Knowledge, 6, 226
Boole, George, 38, 110
Boolean algebra, 38, 110, 119
Bradbury, Ray, 153, 257
_Brain_, 121
Brain computer, 128, 129, 130 human, 87, 125, 128
BRAINIAC computer, 88, 117
Britton, Lionel, 121
Buffer computer, 55 lexical, 238
Buildings, automation of, 217
Burack, Benjamin, 44
Bureau of Mines, U. S., 189
Bureau of Ships, U. S., 255
Burke, Edmund, 32
Burkhart, William, 45
Bush, Vannevar, 13, 45, 76
Business, computer in, 171
Business management, use of computer, 12, 143
Butler, Samuel, 32, 33, 121, 252, 268
CALCULO computer, 75
_Calculus Ratiocinator_, 109
Calendars as computers, 24
California Institute of Technology, 169
Cancer Society, American, 193
_Candide_, 30
Capek, Karel, 43, 121, 215
Caplin, Mortimer, 150
Carroll, Lewis, 38, 118
CDC 1604 computer, 165
Celanese Corp. of America, 207
Celestial simulator, 85
Census, 41
Census Bureau, U. S., 149
Chain circuit, 127
_Characteristica Universalis_, 109
Charactron tube, 66
Checkers (game), 8, 143
Checking, computer, 60
Checkout computer, 183
Chemical Corp., 249
Chess, 8, 9, 16, 35, 99, 142, 156
Circuit chain, 127 delay-line, 63 flip-flop, 63, 115 molecular, 9, 253 printed, 62 reverberation, 128
Clapp, Verner, 248
Clarke, Arthur C., 265
CLASS teaching machine system, 226-228
Clock, 20, 24, 56, 85
COBOL language, 234
Code, computer binary-coded decimal, 103, 106 binary-octal, 106 economy, 106 excess-3, 105, 114 “Gray,” 106 reflected binary, 106 self-checking, 105
Color computer, 4
_Commercial Art_, 175
Commission on Professional and Hospital Activity, 194
Communication, use of computers, 179
Computer ADAM, 258 addition, 106 airborne, 90, 154, 158, 162 analog, 21, 45, 72, 74, 80, 125, 203 direct, 76, 79 direct-current, 76 discrete, 80 indirect, 76, 79 mechanical differential analyzer, 76 scaling, 76 Antikythera, 25 Apollo, 182 space vehicle, 169 applications, digital, 92 ASCC, 155 asynchronous, 255 Athena, 52 ballistic, 83 Bendix G-15, 183, 188 BINAC, 7, 47 BRAINIAC, 88, 117 CALCULO, 75 CLASS, 226-228 code, binary-coded decimal, 103, 106 color, 4 definition, 129 dictionary, 49, 50 difference engine, 5, 35 digital, 18, 45, 73, 84, 125, 203 division, 107 do-it-yourself, 75, 88, 117, 147 electrical-analog, 75 electronic, 1, 46, 122, 151 ENIAC, 7, 40, 46, 85, 215 ERMA, 173 family tree, 86 FINDER system, 161 flow chart, 58, 59 GE 210, 172 GE 225, 245 general-purpose, 54, 81, 191 gigacycle, 254 “Hand,” 132, 214, 215 household, 15, 257 hybrid, 80, 84, 92 ILLIAC, 197 input, 51, 54, 125 JOHNNIAC, 11, 47, 129, 140, 142 language, 233 LARC, 47, 162, 191 LGP-30, 198 limitations, 89 MANIAC, 47, 156, 165 Memex, 13 mill, 38, 51, 60 MIPS, 159 MOBIDIC, 157 MUSE, 48 music, 11, 92, 196, 257 on-line, 81, 205 on-stream, 83, 207 output, 51, 65, 125 parts, 50, 52, 53 problem-solving, 140, 143 Psychological Matrix Rotation, 78, 94 Q-5, 77 RAMAC, 150, 151, 198, 199 Range Keeper Mark I, 42 RAYDAC, 260 RCA 501, 151 “real-time,” 78, 168, 202, 205 RECOMP, 47 revolution, 251 Sabre, 183 SAGE, 3, 12, 37, 53, 158, 159, 226, 259 sequential, 126 “Shoebox,” 242 “software,” 54 spaceborne, 167 special-purpose, 79 SSEC, 155, 156 Stone Age, 21 store, 36, 62 STRETCH, 47, 48 subtraction, 106 testing, 117 UNIVAC, 47, 149, 151, 171, 221 VIDIAC, character-generator, 242 Zuse L23, 199
Computer Control Co., 260
Conjunctive operation, 37, 51, 110
Consciousness, 144, 145, 267
Continuous analog computer, 80
Continuous digital computer, 80
Continuous quantity, 73
Control, computer, 51, 56
Control Data Corp., 194
Conversion analog-to-digital, 74 digital-to-analog, 74
Converters, 94
Cook, William W., 29
Copland, Aaron, 11, 196
Cornell Medical College, 123
Cornell University, 133
Corrigan Communications, 231
Council on Library Resources, 248
Counting Australian, 20 birds, 18 boards, 20 digital, 84 machines, 20 man, 19 modulo-, 97, 101
Credit card, 13, 256
Cryogenics, 70 components, 63
Cryotron, 9, 88, 141, 254, 255
Cybertron, 135, 139
Cyborg, 265
Daedalus, 18
Darwin, Charles, 32, 137, 252
Data link, 14, 185, 256 logger, 205 processing, 22, 171, 264 recording media, 57
Daystrom, Inc., 211
Dead Sea Scrolls, 235
Decimal system, 19
Decision-making, 91
Defense, use of computer, 259
Delay-line circuit, 63
DeMorgan, Augustus, 38, 110, 115
Department of Commerce, U. S., 149, 221
Department of Defense, U. S., 148, 234
Design, use of computer, 14, 172, 186, 268
Desk calculator, 51
Diagnostic use of computer, 194
Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratory, U. S. Army, 69
Dictionary, computer, 49, 50
DIDAK teaching machine, 224
Difference engine, 5, 35
Digiflex trainer, 225
Digital computer, 18, 45, 73, 84, 125, 203
Digital differential analyzer, 94
Digitronics, 236
Discrete quantity, 73
Disjunctive operation, 110
Division, computer, 107
Dodgson, Charles L., 38
Do-it-yourself computer, 75, 88, 117, 147
Douglas Aircraft Co., 65
Dow Chemical Corp., 208
Du Pont Corp., 208
Dunsany, Lord, 108
Eccles-Jordan circuit, 47
Eckert, J. Presper, 47, 85
EDGE computer system, 185
Education, use of computers, 219
_Elan vital_, 127
Election, use of computers, 150
Electric Questionnaire, 133
Electric utilities, use of computers, 93, 208
Electrical-analog computer, 75
Electrical logic machine, 44
Electronic computers, 1, 46, 122, 151
Elephant, compared with computer, 56
Encyclopedia Britannica, 6, 226
ENIAC computer, 7, 40, 46, 85, 215
_Erewhon_, 32, 121
ERMA computer, 173
Ernst, Heinrich, 132, 215
Euler, 142, 143, 163
EURATOM, 158
Family tree, computer, 86
Farnsworth Car Pool logic problem, 116, 118
Farrington Electronics, Inc., 240
Federal Aviation Authority, 149, 161
Federal Government, 148
Feedback principle, 36, 204
Fein, Louis, 260
Fermat’s theorem, 56
Ferranti, Ltd., 182
Ferrite cores, 9, 63, 131, 253
FIELDATA computer family, 157
FINDER computer system, 161
Finn, James D., 224
Flexibility of digital computer, 89
Flight simulator, 83
Flip-flop circuit, 47, 63, 115 fluid, 70
Floating-point arithmetic, 108
Flow chart, computer, 58, 59
Flyball governor, 36, 203
Fluid computer, 70
Food Machinery Corp., 249
Ford Instrument Co., 42
Forrester, J. W., 199
_Fortune_, 245
_Frankenstein_, 42, 212
Freed, Roy, 152
Free learning, 7