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| Current Topic: Technology |
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Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983-1993. |
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| Topic: Technology |
1:49 pm EDT, Jul 19, 2003 |
by Alex Roland and Philip Shiman. MIT Press, June 2002, ISBN 0-262-18226-2. 440 pages. This is the story of an extraordinary effort by the U.S. Department of Defense to hasten the advent of "machines that think." From 1983 to 1993, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) spent an extra $1 billion on computer research aimed at achieving artificial intelligence. The Strategic Computing Initiative (SCI) was conceived as an integrated plan to promote computer chip design and manufacture, computer architecture, and artificial intelligence software. What distinguished SCI from other large-scale technology programs was that it self-consciously set out to advance an entire research front. The SCI succeeded in fostering significant technological successes, even though it never achieved machine intelligence. The goal provided a powerful organizing principle for a suite of related research programs, but it did not solve the problem of coordinating these programs. In retrospect, it is hard to see how it could have. In Strategic Computing, Alex Roland and Philip Shiman uncover the roles played in the SCI by technology, individuals, and social and political forces. They explore DARPA culture, especially the information processing culture within the agency, and they evaluate the SCI?s accomplishments and set them in the context of overall computer development during this period. Their book is an important contribution to our understanding of the complex sources of contemporary computing. Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983-1993. |
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The Global Course of the Information Revolution | RAND |
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| Topic: Technology |
1:49 pm EDT, Jul 19, 2003 |
Advances in information technology are heavily influencing ways in which business, society, and government work and function throughout the globe, bringing many changes to everyday life, in a process commonly termed the "information revolution." This book paints a picture of the state of the information revolution today and how it will likely progress in the near- to mid-term future (10 to 15 years), focusing separately on different regions of the worldNorth America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. The Global Course of the Information Revolution | RAND |
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O'Reilly Network: Bioinformatics Meets Mac OS X [Dec. 14, 2001] |
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| Topic: Technology |
9:55 pm EDT, Jul 15, 2003 |
"Many of the important bioinformatics applications that previously existed only for Unix platforms are now being brought over to the Macintosh, thanks to Mac OS X and its Unix underpinnings." One of many reasons why I want a Mac OSX system. I know this article is old...but as it is new and relevant to me, I thought I would meme it:) O'Reilly Network: Bioinformatics Meets Mac OS X [Dec. 14, 2001] |
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