Word: aikens
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Nugent added that Father Dunne "must have received the letter," because he later replied to another portion of the same note, and suggested that the misunderstanding might have arisen over the way moderator Henry D. Aiken '40 associate professor of Philosophy, introduced the program...
...Aiken's Role Questioned...
...quick "magnetic memory" is what makes Mark III an effective computer. Professor Aiken is so well pleased with it that Mark IV, which Harvard is building for the Air Force, will use the same system. Mark IV will "live" (Aiken, the conservative, says "live") at Harvard permanently, and part of its time will be available to non-military users. Scientists will cheer this news. Nearly all the existing computers do nothing but military work. Only the big I.B.M. machine on Manhattan's Madison Avenue is open to nongovernment scientists, and I.B.M. charges $300 an hour for its services...
Computing machines are very expensive at present; Mark III cost $500,000. But they are becoming simpler, as well as more intelligent, and their cost can be cut enormously by commercial production methods. It is almost certain that they will come into wide use eventually. On Professor Aiken's desk are sheaves of letters from corporations eager to learn about the computers' potentialities...
Nearly all the computermen are worried about the effect the machines will have on society. But most of them are not so pessimistic as Wiener. Professor Aiken thinks that computers will take over intellectual drudgery as power-driven tools took over spading and reaping. Already the telephone people are installing machines of the computer type that watch the operations of dial exchanges and tot up the bills of subscribers...