Today we kick off discussion of If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore. The goal today was to read through part one, but there’s still plenty of time to get a hold of and catch up if you’re behind.
Here’s some questions to kick us off:
Had you ever heard of Simulmatics?
What did you know about the early days of computing? Do they at all remind you of the current days of computing?
Information like these sentences, pg 37, gave me insight on the 2016 US election and organizations like Cambridge Analytica: "...quantitative political science proceeded with very little concern either for political theory or for the actual workings of democracy. Liberal democratic theory posits the rationality of citizens and their interest in and active participation in politics, but the citizen described in the voting behavior research does not meet even a minimum test for rationality and is not very interested in politics or involved, either." Reading this book is like having a historical backdrop painted as I moved from chapter to chapter of decades I lived in but had NO IDEA what was happening in the background. I had never heard of Simulmatics. The book was hard to put down...something I would never have predicted I would say about a book written on this topic.
I'm really liking all this Adlai Stevenson stuff, it's so interesting to see the early tension around television ads, how Democrats had trouble booking firms to work for them because inherently the advertising business favored big business, but also how similar the two different party's voters truly were at the time. Looking forward to hearing more about how they develop it but the 50s is such a fascinating era for television, politics, military, and computing that this is such a great little time capsule.
If this then what! The missing link in the history of technology! He was James Bond; he was Ernest Hemingway! Never had heard of Simulmatics but I'm super glad to be thrown into this mysterious exciting way ahead of it's time world. I also found that whole chapter on Wild Bill & Project Macroscope totally riveting. On a side note, just like that Russian Chess Champion Garry Kasparov took on the computer Deep Blue, I wonder how Nate Silver would have faired against UNIVAC in an election results challenge?
Information like these sentences, pg 37, gave me insight on the 2016 US election and organizations like Cambridge Analytica: "...quantitative political science proceeded with very little concern either for political theory or for the actual workings of democracy. Liberal democratic theory posits the rationality of citizens and their interest in and active participation in politics, but the citizen described in the voting behavior research does not meet even a minimum test for rationality and is not very interested in politics or involved, either." Reading this book is like having a historical backdrop painted as I moved from chapter to chapter of decades I lived in but had NO IDEA what was happening in the background. I had never heard of Simulmatics. The book was hard to put down...something I would never have predicted I would say about a book written on this topic.
I'm really liking all this Adlai Stevenson stuff, it's so interesting to see the early tension around television ads, how Democrats had trouble booking firms to work for them because inherently the advertising business favored big business, but also how similar the two different party's voters truly were at the time. Looking forward to hearing more about how they develop it but the 50s is such a fascinating era for television, politics, military, and computing that this is such a great little time capsule.
If this then what! The missing link in the history of technology! He was James Bond; he was Ernest Hemingway! Never had heard of Simulmatics but I'm super glad to be thrown into this mysterious exciting way ahead of it's time world. I also found that whole chapter on Wild Bill & Project Macroscope totally riveting. On a side note, just like that Russian Chess Champion Garry Kasparov took on the computer Deep Blue, I wonder how Nate Silver would have faired against UNIVAC in an election results challenge?