A few years ago, a typewriter came to me—a Smith-Corona electric portable, I believe—with a variety of papers inside the case. They included a brief report on artificial intelligence, written by Sharon T. in 1988. It's just a few pages long, but it offers an interesting glimpse of the state of the field at the time. I hadn't realized that neural networks were already a topic of intense interest then. Now, almost 40 years later, AI is finally realizing the promises people were making in the late '80s—for better or worse. For one thing, it can generate a report like this in seconds!
This report on cutting-edge computer technology was expertly typed on ... a typewriter. The irony is never acknowledged here, and Sharon may not even have realized it. In 1988, typewriters still hadn't been replaced by personal computers everywhere. That was the year when I got my own first computer (a Macintosh SE); until then, I'd been using my faithful 1937 Remington Noiseless 7. I believe Sharon was a high-school student: her research, grammar, and typing skills are excellent, but the report doesn't have the length or depth one would expect in a college paper. Plenty of high-schoolers in 1988 would live in homes without personal computers (or "microcomputers," as Sharon calls them).
Here is Sharon's report:
Here's a PDF of the report if you'd like to have it.
Keep your eyes on this blog for a major announcement about typewriters and AI!
Love it! I remember learning about expert systems during my M.Sc. in the same years. I do wonder how come this copy is so nicely done, with colour, as if it was never submitted for marking? I did not usually end up an extra copy of my papers, except for the drafts.
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