In 1978 as I was about to leave Pittsburgh for a job at Bell Labs my wife and I were staying with with Scott and Penny Fahlman since our furniture was on a moving van. Scott was an AI hotshot who had recently arrived at Carnegie Mellon. I was typing the final revision of my numerical analysis dissertation on my Smith Corona when Scott said, "Frank, that will be the last computer science dissertation ever written on a typewriter."
--- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Sat, Jun 11, 2022, 5:20 AM Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > Holy Moley! > > The references to Kissenger et. al.'s "The Age of AI: and our Human > Future" here lead me to find his 1950 Senior Thesis at Harvard (scanned > copy of the typewritten original > <https://ia903000.us.archive.org/23/items/HenryAKissingerTheMeaningOfHistoryReflectionsOnSpenglerToynbeeAndKant/Henry%20A%20Kissinger%20-%20The%20Meaning%20of%20History_%20Reflections%20on%20Spengler%2C%20Toynbee%2C%20and%20Kant.pdf> > ). > > > https://ia903000.us.archive.org/23/items/HenryAKissingerTheMeaningOfHistoryReflectionsOnSpenglerToynbeeAndKant/Henry%20A%20Kissinger%20-%20The%20Meaning%20of%20History_%20Reflections%20on%20Spengler%2C%20Toynbee%2C%20and%20Kant.pdf > > I am only 20 something pages into this 400 page tome and definitely over > my head in several ways. His language reads a little *overly* flowery and > technically specific, and yet that may just be a result of the *era* and > it's topic as an analysis of three writer's take on history itself > (Spengler, Toynbee, Kant). I have tried resolving several obscure terms > such as "genus Culture", references to which I can only find in archaic > botanical texts? I have not read Spengler and only skimmed Toynbee and > the Kant I read is now 40 years past, so of course I don't have much more > than an effing clue of what he is effing on about here, yet it is > fascinating nevertheless. > > Even reading the typewritten type carries a sort of spectre of the time > and place this was generated. It adds significance that I gifted my last > working typewriter (at times I have had as many as 5 or 6 which could be > made to work with a little care in use) to one of our house-sitters while > we travel. She may well be typing on it as I type this. The unevenness > of a manual typewriter, the waviness of the line and the uneveness of the > impression reflects in some way the mechanical device but also the > operator. My instinct is that Kissinger did not type this final > manuscript himself if in fact he even typed any of it. It has the > evenness (relative, given the limits of the type of device) of an > accomplished typist, typing in a workman-like way. The digital copy (pdf) > appears to be a scan of a photocopy to boot, adding contrast enhancement > and some subsequent elision of bits by thresholding. > > I was tempted to cut-n-paste a few choice lines (images, not txt) and > comment on them, but realize that perhaps nobody else here cares and it > would just be a manual exercise for myself to no point otherwise. OCR is > good enough these days to make it possible to render it as txt, etc. but > since I am bogged down in the text itself and distracted by trying to graze > through Jenny's library here in Weesp, while quaffing the entireity of one > of her favorite tomes (a biography of Gregory Bateson), I will leave it now > and see if anyone else delves deep enough into the source material to spark > a conversation here that I can join or simply enjoy. > > So many books, so little time! If I had more time I would learn to > speedread so I can have more time to read more. > > > > -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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