On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:05:36 -0700, Stephen Black mused:
[snip]
Yes, of course any webpage located with a search engine cannot exist
earlier than the start of the world wide web. But among those gadzillions
of web pages are many which provide documents which go back much earlier,
many into the 1800s. A google search turns them up. The problem is to
separate out in a particular search these early sources from being lost
in the thousands of hits to later ones. The only way is to laboriously
scan through them one by one, which is usually an overwhelming task.
Then again one could ask a librarian about whether there are such
websites or other specialists or a colleague in a particular area
(since you're referring to the 1800s, a historian of some stripe)
could be helpful. But you're not really searching for websites rather
for databases; the website is just a portal to the database, such as
Jstor which contains documents back to the 1600s. As I said
previously (which you've deleted) most really important databases
are proprietary and operate on some sort of subscription model.
One could use Google scholar for free to locate references in psych
journals but it won't provide anything like the coverage provided by
PsycInfo.
The one major exception to the subscription model is Medline/PubMed
provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine but this has not
always been the case.
I've tried to find a better way, and failed. I thought that perhaps by
mentioning it on TIPS, someone would have an idea. As for the wayback
machine, that of course won't work either.
Perhaps it would be best to talk to a librarian or information specialist
with knowledge about document databases that can be accessed via
the web.
And wayback on August 24, the question Mike asked us was
"What is the first published use of the term cyborg and
who used it?"
Because I'm just a little grumpy about such matters, I point out that
Peter Kepros first aced that question by providing a Wikipedia entry that
Kline (with Clynes) used it in 1960. I followed up (again depending on
good old Wikipedia) to point out that the OED has an even earlier source
in the NY Times (still 1960, though). While it falls a tad short of
Michael Phelps' achievement, I'd have to say we likely deserve at least
silver and bronze on Mike's question.
If you really want a medal, let me say "it's in the mail". However
we should probably remember that Wikipedia is far from a definitive
source. Remember that the same could be said for the NY Times
(iceberg anyone?). Given that neither can be completely trusted,
other sources (e.g., Jstor, OED, etc.) need to be checked as well as
asking a community that that has some familiarity with artificial
intelligence
and science fiction (i.e., TiPS), both of which I did. So far, no go.
As I've mentioned in another post in this thread, if the papers of either
Clynes or Kline are available, it would be best to examine them to see
how they develop the term cyborg, given that the concept of cybernetic
organism should have been around for some time before the term cyborg
emerged. Remember that a somewhat similar conclusion was reached
regarding G. Stanley Hall and his use of the term iceberg.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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