All about polymorphics / a film primer based on a doodle essay by Simon Ramo, as told by John Salzer.

[United State] : Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, a division of Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, inc., [1959]

1 streaming video file (7 min., 21 sec.) : sound, colour

A short introduction to distributed computing from 1959 anticipates the first packet-switching network, ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, by ten years. Computers are anthropomorphic in these videos: processing units are "brains" and the machines are "ready and able to work" but sitting idle like some unchallenged but brilliant graduate student. This is not how we talk about them anymore, but has the desire to unlock some latent potential in the machine really disappeared?

Computer architecture.
Science.
Technology.
Ordinateurs Architecture.
Sciences.
Technologie.
sciences (philosophy)

Video recordings (physical artifacts)
Streaming video.

Ramo, Simon.
Salzer, John narrator.
Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, producer.
Centre canadien d'architecture, host institution.
Centre canadien d'architecture. CCAchannel.

Polymorphic computing : isn't this a lot of fun?
French title on CCA website: Informatique polymorphe : curieux, n'est-ce pas ?

Localisation: Bibliothèque internet resource 306450
Cote: 306450
Statut: Disponible