Good Morning: Colonel assures audience ‘man is still the best computer’

“Man Still The Best Computer, Colonel Tells S.V. Rotary Club,” -The amazing properties of the new super-digital computer system which STRATCOM has contracted to have installed at Fort Huachuca were outlined by Col. Albert E. Haines, director of computer systems at the Fort, when he spoke to Rotarians here Monday.

“The new computer system has the capacity to receive, store, compare, manipulate, and record results of 600 million bits of information,” Col. Haines said.

Col. Haines assured those attending that man was the first and still is the greatest data processor.

“At Long Last In Sight-Community Swimming Pool,” -It’s been a long, dry crawl, but at last Sierra Vista is to get its community swimming pool.

The announcement from Washington D.C., Monday by Congressman Morris K. Udall that a Federal grant of $49,940 (to be matched by about twice that by Sierra Vistans) has been approved for the construction of a pool here, was good news especially to those civic leaders who have sweated for it, but an element of fatigue seemed to somewhat temper their happiness.

The Federal grant, to help build the 50-meter pool and facilities, is money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. An optimistic completion date in the fall has been set.

Movies playing during the month of June, 1968 at the Geronimo Drive-In Theater include: a Dino de Laurentis film, “Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die,” a James Bond spoof produced by an Italian-American co-production team. The plot was of a Brazilian industrialist who planned to sterilize the human race through the use of his satellite and to personally repopulate the planet with beautiful women he has kidnapped and is holding in suspended animation. Michael Connors starred as a down-to-earth CIA agent.

Also playing: “The Sons of Katie Elder,” starring John Wayne and Dean Martin; “The Professionals,” with Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Jack Palance and Claudia Cardinale; “Firecreek,” starring James Stewart and Henry Fonda; “Wait Until Dark,” with Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna; “In The Heat of the Night,” with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger; ”Billion Dollar Brain,” “Nevada Smith,” starring Steve McQueen, Karl Malden and Suzanne Pleshette and “Warkill,” (Note: Movies at that time had no ratings such as PG, PG-13 or R; they did not “suggested for mature audiences,” on the movie “Warkill.”)

Isaac Asimov: A Feeling of Power

From Wikipedia:

In the distant future, humans live in a computer-aided society and have forgotten the fundamentals of mathematics, including even the rudimentary skill of counting.

The Terrestrial Federation is at war with Deneb, and the war is conducted by long-range weapons controlled by computers which are expensive and hard to replace. Myron Aub, a low grade Technician, discovers how to reverse-engineer the principles of pencil-and-paper arithmetic from computers—a development which is later dubbed "Graphitics". The discovery is appropriated by the military establishment, who use it to re-invent their understanding of mathematics. They also plan to replace their computer-operated ships with lower cost, more expendable (in their opinion) manned ships to continue the war.

Aub is so upset by the appropriation of his discovery for military purposes that he commits suicide. As Aub's funeral proceeds, his supervisor realizes that even with Aub dead, the advancement of Graphitics is unstoppable. He executes simple multiplications in his mind without help from any machine, which gives him a great feeling of power.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.