[CW] Interesting Podcast about Samuel F. B. Morse and Morse Code

[Richard Knoppow]

    You remind me of an ancient SF story, the title of which is 
long gone from my memory. The plot is that the dial telephone 
system, which is essentially a sort of computer, reaches such a 
size that it achieves consciousness. All the phones in the world 
ring at once; its birth cry. I don't remember any more of it 
except that like so many computer stories of the 1950s it was 
evil and undesirable. None of those stories ever predicted 
personal computers; they were too oriented toward massive 
machines that would take over the world. Anyway, the theme of 
machines taking over was pretty common. I guess they sort of did, 
what with automated manufacturing. Well, the Chinese still depend 
on slave labor and, despite the notion that machines work for 
free, they really don't do anything of the sort.
    I also wonder about the term "artificial intelligence", to me 
all intelligence is just that. I suppose we could call it 
non-human intelligence but the computers are thought up and 
constructed by humans. Enough, I am babbling.

On 8/4/2021 12:26 PM, Chris R. NW6V wrote:
> Hi Richard.
>
> You're quite right about Western Union being the first national 
> company. The problem of having many, many, many telegraph 
> companies link to each other was solved by monopoly - and it 
> was referred to as a "natural monopoly" if memory serves.
>

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL