The Incredible Machine (1968)

Interesting old film detailing advancements in computer/digital technology, featuring the 'Graphic 1' computer system at Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Includes scenes of:
*Digital musical composition
*Electronic circuit design utilising a digital pen
*Digital movie production
*3D simulation of orbiting satellite
*Conversion of pictures to mosaics composed of tiny images
*Digital voice modulation
The Bell Labs 'Graphic 1' computer system consisted of a Digital Equipment Corporation 'PDP-5' computer coupled with input devices such as the 'Type 370' light pen and Teletype Corporation 'Teletype Model 33' keyboard, married to a Digital Equipment Corporation 'Type 340' precision incremental display backed by 36-bit Ampex 'RVQ' buffer memory capable of storing 4096 'words'. The resolution on the monitor was 1024×1024.
This system was designed to transform the graphics-based input into output to be fed into a IBM '7094' (200 Kflop/s). The entire thing was attached to a microfilm-based recorder - the Stromberg Carlson 'SC 4020', which took hours to read and record the data.
Please subscribe.

[@billykuan]

They are wasting their time , computers will never work.

[@rukiddinbro]

execlacli, dont worrey everythhang is allrite

[@rc3d490]

It's true, never will work. A group of loosers (...)

[@jellydee123]

Same with faster than light travel... god, these scientists eh?

[@ultrasparc]

It is ridiculous to see them teaching machine to speak.

[@HeyaGlizzy]

@@ultrasparc That was 51 years ago, and for them it was new technology and they were researching computer science

[@gajbooks]

Somehow this feels more futuristic than modern technology. Maybe it's the optimism.

[@hopalongcassidy4260]

Well I thought so too but if we were to go to a mayor tecnology company lab we would be looking at some 10 20 years plus cutting edge technology

[@ukranaut]

Yep, future in the 50s and 60s looked closer than it looks today.

[@williamworth2746]

Sometimes it pays to take a step back before you move forward

[@rommix0]

It's definitely the optimism. Unlike back then we dread the future more often than not.

[@elijahvincent985]

It's because of the CG visuals, early computer music, and speech synth isn't it? It's jarring to see a fair amount of technology we use today being very present in 1968... given its' VERY basic presentation... What's stranger is that all the components used in the computers are still manufactured today in one form or another.

[@01DOGG01]

COPYRIGHT DEFEATED A bogus claim by 'Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne' was defeated last night. The video should now be available everywhere again.

[@celticwinter]

Thanks for preserving this!

[@tidiestflyer7570]

I know this was posted 6 years ago. But copyright claims that restrict videos to specific countries are so dumb.

[@davidpar2]

what on earth kind of copyright claim could a European Television association think they had on a film made in Dearborn, Michigan?

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

Copyright has been twisted into a sick perversion. It's not at all, what it was originally intended to do.

[@01DOGG01]

@@davidpar2 They probably used a segment from it. Happens all the time. Sony used some footage from the 20s and claimed copyright on one of my uploads. They refused to budge. Can't do anything about it.

[@keenanfinucan8778]

It's actually impressive how much they were able to achieve with such limited computing resources, and how well they integrated all these technologies together: analog video, typeball typewriters, punchcards, magnetic tape, light pens, etc.

[@barbadoskado2769]

guys from Bell labs are amongst the most intelligent people alive that are constructively working on new innovations to better the world

[@abundantYOUniverse]

Thank God computers were just a fad.

[@Xezlec]

My grandfather still insisted that even in the early 1990s!

[@mikabreto]

Hey you kids, get off of my 16 baud communication trunk!

[@Dracopol]

Yeah, imagine if people were mesmerized by them and stared at screens all day! What kind of life would that be for humans?

[@fartyperson]

lol

[@lelandclayton5462]

ATH

[@brendenowen2609]

They made so many random things because everything they did was new and never done before. A golden age of computer programming...

[@Kizoky.]

Hard to believe they had computers like this in 1968

[@01DOGG01]

Not much has changed since then, asides from the size, complexity, and processing power of systems. And naturally their storage mediums and affordability. Give me my quantum PC already...

[@Ahnehoon]

01DOGG01 Well, not much changes between the brain of a lizard and our brain, aside from size, complexity and processing power. And we aquired new capabilities in the way of 'just make it bigger'. Like abstraction, language and logic deduction.

[@Real-qj3jb]

I what to history museum it'd all about 1968

[@AgentSmith911]

The principle is the same today as back then. Processing of information. Input, process, output. A hundred years from now, much will be the same, only more powerful. We will have tiny microchips the size of a mm2, doing calculation at speeds of yottaflops.

[@AKATenn]

once the transistor came out... BAM! everything changed...

[@FranGT]

And this was only like 50 years ago, incredible how fast technology progresses.

[@steecheeful]

Fran GT i hate your avatar :D

[@grugposter605]

Some do, some dont

[@tolkkiz]

I'm actually impressed, that they already had all this over 50 years ago, graphics and sound, smooth animation... These guys had a very good idea of what is going to happen in the future. My mother was born in the early 60's and she would always tell me, how there were no computers back then...

[@avus-kw2f213]

What’s more impressive is that they had planned out the Internet

[@Sashazur]

Besides the amazing retro computer graphics and sound, what I really like is when they show the people having normal discussions as part of their jobs. In most industrial movies like this either nobody talks at all except the narrator, or when they do it's incredibly stilted.

[@ArmandKarlsen]

I love how these old films on computer technology always feel the need to make the soundtrack BEEP BOOP BLARPABARP

[@mr19zee]

1968 : We could pick up a phone and write down a movie in complex limited code and render pictures and music scores. 2019: pick up a waterproof phone with unfathomable processing power and nut to 4k hentai in the shower using 1gb/s internet speed. Yeeeah I'd say we're utilizing our technology to its fullest potential.

[@AexisRai]

The internet is for porn, as they say

[@Tremor244]

Yo what the fuck? (A person from 1968)

[@hawaiisidecar]

Water resistant.

[@ophello]

Speak for yourself.

[@deadaccount3994]

@Blind Bob The shear inaccuracy, naivety and elitism displayed in that comment is honestly astounding. You've reached levels of ignorant douchebag I honestly didn't think were possible, it's damn impressive.

[@ArmandKarlsen]

Gotta love the Sixties... "It's about computers, so the soundtrack has to be BOOP BEEP BLOOP BLARPABARP" XD

[@Zwettekop]

They still do that today in hacking scenes.

[@pwnmeisterage]

It was way more modern than the percussive rattling KLACKA-KLACKA-KLACKA-KLACKA electromechanical computer noises of previous decades.

@@Zwettekop in these days, they start a heavy acid techno song and make the actor write 500 words per minute in a keyboard.

[@grendelum]

That light pen technology eventually led to *Nintendo’s Duck Hunt.*

[@quattordicimontenapoleone3113]

Surely would have seemed like a work of magic to the primitives in this video.

[@Hermentotip]

Holy sh** its the Laughing Man!

[@_Ramen-Vac_]

LOL "Duck Flunk" yup.

[@grendelum]

Hermentotip I thought what I’d do was pretend to be one of those deaf-mutes... or should I?

[@grendelum]

Quattordici Montenapoleone - it is impressive when you consider not many years earlier their computer was the size of a warehouse and needed a small army of kids to run around replacing blown vacuum tubes...

[@panicraptor2837]

Back when engineers wore suits and suits wore hawaii shirts

[@penclaw]

StuG III is a sniper schnitzel

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

Back when engineers actually engineered, and weren't just constructing piles of java.

[@CockatooDude]

@@mikeymcmikeface5599 Engineers still engineer, just because the medium has changed for many doesn't mean there's less merit in the field.

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

@@CockatooDude bah

[@CockatooDude]

@@mikeymcmikeface5599 Whaddya mean bah!? It's not like engineering has gotten any easier. People were pushing boundaries then just like people are pushing boundaries now.

[@Lugmillord]

Man, the future will be crazy with such amazing technology. Also, whoever made this "music" deserves all the prizes.

[@VTUBERHAYATO]

I agree.... I grew hearing that melody and I still feel relaxed heating it up until now

[@BakerImageGroup]

"Hey guys, let's take a break and hop into BF5"

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

Indeed. Jobs never invented a single thing. His ruthlessness was to simply monetize the inventions of others.

[@Eddiezerintube]

Mikey McMikeFace may be... but applying pre-existing technologies in new context, combinations, forms or uses TOO is an Intelectual Invention! The interactive interface applicated into mobile device was a new concept! As Newton Said: "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants". All scientific and technologic advances are stacked puzzles and dominoes pieces! Don't forget this fact!!! I'm inventor, composer, singer, musician, physic researcher, 3d designer, poet, novel writer, sculptor, and maybe more... for that reason I understand in first person and defend the work of an inventor and a creative. Please do not criticize without having experience and knowledge on the subject. Thanks!!!

[@QuadMochaMatti]

@@mikeymcmikeface5599 And thank goodness that Steve Jobs and his stinky black turtlenecks are gone.

[@bob4analog]

At 7:47, it's interesting how they use the term 'countless dots' to make a picture. The term 'pixel' had not come about yet.

[@bluskos]

While you're right in the fact the term pixel hadn't been coined yet, they wouldn't need to use the word. The displays used on the computer are vector displays which don't use pixels. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_monitor "In a vector display, the image is composed of drawn lines rather than a grid of glowing pixels..."

[@hardwirecars]

@@bluskos and that is exactly why you cant use the nintendo light gun on our new tv's the light gun required the vector display to work.

[@catalinvasile9081]

@@hardwirecars Not exactly. Light guns require CRTs as they simply detect the moment the electron beam hits the photo detector inside the gun. Since the console knew where the beam is at any moment it could deduce where the light gun was pointing at. However CRTs are not vector displays. Old CRTs didn't have pixels though as they were quantized only vertically in lines and horizontally they didn't have any quantization: the horizontal resolution was limited in an analog way by their bandwidth (and that of the input video signal). Later color CRTs started having horizontal 'pixels' due to various grids they needed for the RGB phosphors. Vector displays are a different beast entirely.

[@kasel1979krettnach]

@@catalinvasile9081 thank you

[@bob4analog]

The computer folks wanted use a nonstandard term. So instead of a dot matrix, someone came up with the term pixels, which meant picture elements. All this just to be different. very odd.

[@morbius109]

My dad worked as a field technician for Bell from 1969 to 2003. He told me that at its peak, Ma Bell had everything for its enterprises, from the line services to R&D to equipment production and supply, all under the Ma Bell umbrella. He said in the '60s and '70s they heard of amazing tech and programs that Bell Labs produced, and such things as this boggled his and his coworkers minds and amazed them all the same. Now we'd consider it primitive, but back then, this was cutting edge and top of the line. Amazing stuff, great video.

[@alobosk]

The internet, every smartphone in the world, and Macs run entirely in technology started by Bell Labs (UNIX, Linux, Android, et-all)

[@krashd]

@@alobosk You could word that better as neither Linux nor Android have anything to do with bell other than their operating systems are descended from UNIX.

[@kwisatzhaderach1458]

I swear some company must have made a ufo with how advanced they were at the time

[@TheHaters112]

@@kwisatzhaderach1458 We can easily make a UFO. But is it cost effective and efficient? No. Our planes are still 60s-70s models with a few modifications.

[@woods7438]

Yes, Bell threw almost unlimited resources to projects without regard to feasibility. Plus they added lucrative pay for individuals in such programs.

[@RetroPlus]

Imagine how they'd react if you gave these lads a modern day computer.

[@sergiosierra6849]

*A foldable cellphone

[@JiveDadson]

They'd want to see a flying car.

[@Toleich]

They wouldn't be able to use it.

[@illilya]

it's not how you'd think. i've learned LISP, haskell and COBOL this semester. they are miserably lame compared to higher object oriented languages. the functional languages are just that... no variables just a very complicated twisted sideways inside out ninja recursive function and COBOL is kind of a nice attempt at structure and scripting but it sucks. suggest the possibilities of java or python or C# and they'd cry. they'd think our brains are the size of a walmart compared to them and be scared of our computers, realizing a potential that looks like a galaxy compared to a solar system of a few registers and limited memory.

[@altairel-ghoul6802]

@@Toleich m'afraid not: they'd learn using it in no time and take it beyond what you and most can grasp!

[@cavegames]

I love the dramatic lighting everywhere! You can see where Hollywood got their idea of what computers are like. Unfortunately, their understanding has barely progressed since. This was one of the best videos I ever saw on KZbin, though! :)

[@franciscofarias6385]

Despite being absurdly informative and curious, it's also very artistic. The light, the music, the narration, they all work together to create a very strong mood. And the fact it uses computer music and computer graphics all the time is just brilliant. This is an amazing video even for today's standards.

[@GrandpaHerman1]

In the future, every typewriter will incorporate computer technology in some way.

[@AndrewSteffenHB]

um...when were you born? I haven't seen a typewriter except for when I was a kid and there was one in our grandmas study

[@BrightBlueJim]

That's up there with being able to pick up a phone and write a movie. Seems awfully cumbersome, but when you're The Phone Company, everything is seen as a way of extending the scope of your product. It's like when people thought that the ultimate goal of information technology was being able to fax pictures and documents instantly.

[@kixxalot]

What an awesome documentary, it's quite a trip. Things were similar enough that you can relate, yet still so different that it seems like a different planet. The two engineers designing a circuit on what looks like a highly usable touch screen system, in a dark room with gloomy red lighting, wearing suits and ties... Thanks a bunch for uploading, I subscribed to your channel!

[@01DOGG01]

Not a problem mate, I love stuff like this. I've had to cut back though due to bogus copyright issues. You know, the CIA built a dragonfly in the 70s. It used a fluidic oscillator as the engine, and gas as the fuel. It was guided by a laser beam and designed to deliver an audio bug to a taret location. It had its limitations though, such as a 100 meter range, and would not work in windy or even breezy conditions. Imagine what they have now! kzbin.info/www/bejne/iouWpKOji9ahmdE

[@Xezlec]

It's not a touch screen. They're using a "light pen". An old-fashioned input device that fell out of use in the late 80s to early 90s.

[@01DOGG01]

​@@NimsQuarlo I understand how it works, but question the accuracy of that allegation. I mean... can a voice really vibrate a window that much? Surely it would depend on shape, size, etc... The biggest issue I have is that there are other environmental factors which far overpower the impulses that a human voicebox generates. A car or truck driving past would vibtate the window a lot more than your voice. There's simply too much interference to be able to filter out such a tiny interference. If you can show me evidence, I'll be well impressed. But will probably miss it as I'm being swamped with comments now as the video skyrocketed in popularity overnight.

[@soniccookie655]

@@01DOGG01Veritasium made a video on something like this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m4bdc2OCZdKGeas

[@cruzcam]

"We'll be on the way to sending three dimensional color picture messages over ordinary thelephone lines" Wow!

[@fartyperson]

It's pretty much what the internet is now

[@Fahnder99]

Could they have imagined viewing movies in real time over telephone line? I really doubt that.

[@PhilJonesIII]

I did my first 'work experience' from school in the 60s at a computer center that processed wages. The programmers didn't have screens at all. They did however send digital images to each other on the printers. (usually pornographic, one guy got the sack while I was there). Same principal, not fast but the idea was already there.

[@gepset]

gifs

[@ahmettay2382]

DSL and 3D SRS ...

[@jasoneverett]

Back then, casual Friday meant working with your suit jacket unbuttoned.

[@GrubbJunker]

Can't wait to get my hands on one of these babies. NOICE!

[@lesnyk255]

Oh, man - I remember punch cards, 120-column line printers, vacuum-loading tape drives... I must be OLD...... ...I also remember confidently stating that desktop computers were just toys that wouldn't go anywhere - that the future would be in remote terminals we'd rent to access storage space on massive, centralized mainframes. I'd like to say that I was predicting the Cloud, but I'm afraid not.

[@PhilJonesIII]

I was able to get on the PC bandwagon in the early 80's. Someone brought in an external hard drive slightly larger than a house-brick. We all wondered who could possibly use 20 megs of disk space. 20 megabyte: That's not quite enough space for two photos from my camera.

[@lostspace5811]

Pretty much

[@HGZinc]

If it helps any, when I was in college studying computing in the mid-nineties when the internet was just starting to become a thing normal people had heard of, I confidently predicted that it would just be a fad and that after a couple of years, most people would quite happily go on to whatever the next big fad would be and the internet would just go back to being full of computer programmers and academics. I don't make predictions any more.

[@goiterlanternbase]

The mainframes will allways more powerfull, than the device at your hand. Have computing power at your hand will be allways more expensive, then call a mainframe and wait for the result. Nothing much to predict;)

[@lostspace5811]

@@goiterlanternbase you know i think you are onto something.. The invention of the internet was really cern intranet spreading.. A network of processors connected to deal with the vast array of raw data... Great heat dispersion.. But the cheapest way to have it grow.. Get the global public to pay for it... So crypto mining is actually what microsoft Has been doing for years having background processes syphon off your performance to web process for firms.. Which is the inverse of this idea... Lets say everyone had Screen they did actions on.. All they want to see is a result.. A super cooled quantum could serve all of those monitors .. Whether hand held or home pc... And it would be like nothing changed you just wouldnt have a radiator at home called a cpu.. The reason they wont do this is the same reason tesla was killed over "free" persay energy. Consumers pay for and offer free bug reports. Instead of allowing people to have a better life on the majority giving earths inherent abilities.. They would rather industry thrive on the majority benevolent people whom there will be someone somewbere who will do a job for free just to be apart of the web and we do.. We buy up old tech whilst tech we should have now is sitting in a warehouse somewhere. They incrementally increase control performance and find new ways to limit perception of what a fast computer is.. Syphon off the rest etc.

[@andrewjackdaw2511]

10:00 HAL9000 Sings happily. Just wait till 2001.....

[@Metal_Maxine]

I was looking for this comment

[@nostalium]

This is mind blowing! God I hope this technology takes off!

[@ianj.gonzales4839]

1969: With the processing power of tomorrow people will be capable of doing things we could never imagined. 2019: GUCCI GANG GUCCI GANG GUCCI GANG!

[@RyanFromUltrasound]

they weren't lying

[@_I_Hear_You]

1969s people can even imagine, that what with computing power like in 2019, regular people still can do only GUCCI GANG GUCCI GANG GUCCI GANG!

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

@David Stunning no! You can do better! You can be better! Strive to be more than a just a drone. A little more then you were the day before! You can do it!! You humans have come very far in so little time don't give up now!

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

I'd like that. Now I don't have to get out of bed to interface with the network. Then I wouldn't even have to move my arms anymore.

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

@@mikeymcmikeface5599 or you're free to do other things while connected. I put my major UI and systems in my googles for a reason. You wanna be hands free when on the wing

[@holic-net]

The entire musical score of this film was composed with Mario Paint

[@patjaffray6799]

Wow. The animation at ~6:00 was trippy. Turn on the sub--titles! The modern computers interpreted the old computer generated music as words, leading to a stream of consciousness narration worthy of a beatnik.

[@nengu1472]

Pat Jaffray ahahaha thank you for pointing that out!

[@userPrehistoricman]

Those aren't auto-generated captions. The auto-generated ones have no text for that area.

[@patjaffray6799]

@@userPrehistoricman I've often wondered how KZbin captions were generated. I assumed it was digital based on the high error rates. Too bad. There was something nice about one computer misunderstanding another computer. Maybe payback for all my auto-correct faux pas.

[@userPrehistoricman]

Google's one is good actually. Speech recognition is getting very good these days and big tech companies do it on a massive scale with apparent ease.

[@EHiggins]

According to the captions at 3:00 Bell Labs invented hip-hop in 1968

[@TheFoxMcfat]

and his answer was "no u"

[@Cygnus0lor]

You look like Jesus

[@benciccarelli6486]

now thats a hip-hop level of mumble!

[@ErinTurco21]

Watching this stoned, on a modern computer is such a beautifully meta experience.

[@boyitalian21]

6:32 "what spellbinds me is an idea that I'll be able to sit someplace, a railroad station, and write a movie. or maybe even pick up a telephone eventually and write a movie." this guy prophesied the ability to create entertainment with our phones

[@koncreteto2758]

0:45 QR code already existed in the 60's +

[@primovid]

Haha...try to scan it with your phone!

[@minsin56]

@@primovid what dafaq it gave me a $500 amazon gift card

[@-Vitalis-]

@@primovid It gave me a $200 discount on thailandese girls.

[@mz7315]

@@-Vitalis- YOU CANNOT JOKE ABOUT WORLD PROBLEMS!!! I usually never talk to people in this way but this is revolting.

[@chadangeles3856]

@@mz7315 cry baby

[@soundtester]

This is not a video. This is pure pleasure!

[@01DOGG01]

You might also like On Guard! The Story of SAGE (~1956) kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6avZaxqbtJ6p9k

[@01DOGG01]

Or if you're into sound stuff, I've got a couple of videos about 4-track tapes and such.

[@soundtester]

@@01DOGG01 Thank you! Subscribe for sure :)

[@BrightBlueJim]

@@01DOGG01 Then you probably remember seeing light guns from that movie. BTW, the way these work, notice that when the operator touches the screen with the pen (1:35) , a '+' cursor shows up. The pen contains a photodiode, and the computer knows what symbol it was drawing on the screen when it started getting pulses from it. It then started drawing the '+' cursor in order to fine-track the pen in X and Y.

[@7raczyk]

That mechanical keyboard makes the tactile switches of today sound like rubber domes.

[@McFluff33]

Its attached to a typewriter, that's why its so loud.

[@tombig4011]

The guy making the movie without a mustache looks like he has been on a 5 day cocaine binge.

[@MrMikedejeuner]

@@NimsQuarlo this is scary I tought the very same thing

[@luckyhappyman3195]

XD

[@mehmet2247]

@@NimsQuarlo Bullseye

[@TruAnRksT]

Who wasn't back then Tom? I know I was. But hey cocaine isn't all that bad, it took the CIA to really make it bad.

[@JiveDadson]

It was 1968.

[@greensky01]

Look at all those wheels, giant machines, and complex programs. This will never take to mainstream.

[@gapadad2]

OMG! At 6:44 he says "Pick up a telephone and write a movie". He had no idea how true that statement would become.

[@jackburton37211]

yea my jaw dropped on that one...

[@smurfystef]

This is beautiful and so well-done. Long live CRT!

[@goredwings1212]

This is outstanding, thanks for digging this out to share!

[@JMLRecording]

6:40 "I want to sit in a railroad station and pick up telephone and write a movie..." This was his guy's hope for computers of the future? That we can write movies... over a phone... at train stations. Brilliant.

[@chrisrosenkreuz23]

technically he's the unsung dictator of the entire modern world :))

[@jimandaubz]

And, how many modern movies are currently being written on cell phones, made on laptops and tablets connected to the internet. They described the modern internet, and 3d graphics... in a time when computers where struggling to render pictures, and struggling generate any halfway watchable graphics. And that.. sound synthesis. Eech. It is truly incredible

[@RCAvhstape]

He wasn't totally wrong. Go to any train station or airport and see how many people are doing work on their laptop computers while sipping coffee waiting for their layover to end. He mentions movies as an example, but being able to work while mobile is what they were really getting at. For a while we had Blackberries and now it's smart phones. Bell Labs was always thinking way ahead.

[@zooblestyx]

Now I know what it sounds like to be serenaded by Stephen Hawking.

[@mcdus78]

zooblestyx Haha🤣

[@Tooill4daIRS]

😂😂😂😂

[@TheLordbal]

touch screens in 68, makes ya wonder what tech we have now that we dont know about........

[@Moxxuren]

Wasn't a touch screen at all. The "pen" is reading the dots of light on the screen to tell where it's pointing. Same way Duck hunt worked on the original Nintendo

[@TheLordbal]

@@Moxxuren i understand that

[@realblakrawb]

Oh we are probably 40 years behind.

[@zacharycoleman1117]

@@Moxxuren so... a touch screen.

[@eisas1306]

After this we invented a "laser" touch screen which worked by breaking the lasers path to tell where you were touching. Modern touch screens use a capacitive method to translate your touch into electrical energy.

[@Yand2k6]

That Daisy song at 10:05 sounds like an origin of Daisy song by HAL in Space Odyssey

[@gus473]

It is, a variant! 😎

[@0neIntangible]

coincidently, 2001 was released the same year!

[@kurenan4564]

The book was published the same year. Hard to know who influenced who. I tend to believe that Arthur C. Clarke must have seen a demonstration of computers and included the Daisy song in his book.

[@Yand2k6]

@@kurenan4564 seems reasonable

[@truefaith.27]

I once read that the IBM singing Daisy Bell influenced the choice to include an homage in 2001.

[@kwisatzhaderach1458]

Wtf is this.. They had this in 1960s??? Something tells me we have no idea what other shit they have made haha. So cool to see.

[@hardwirecars]

in 2007 my brother went to work for bell helicopter he promptly told me about this bad ass room he went in where a projection of a part would show up that he could interact with in real time. for reference we are just now getting hmd vr and my brother got to play in a damn holodeck.

[@kwisatzhaderach1458]

@@hardwirecars I wouldn't doubt it.

[@emanuelmonterroso1667]

The had VR around that time too

[@kwisatzhaderach1458]

@@emanuelmonterroso1667 Yeah! I saw that. Very interesting!

[@thudthud5423]

Yeah. By coincidence I was working on a CAD model while watching this. I bet what I was doing would send all of those guys' jaws dropping to the floor.

[@raccoon681]

im blown away by the vector graphics thats pretty good for 1968

[@jaxxonbalboa3243]

This amazing that they were doing this in 1968. BTW I did intern with Bell Labs back in the early 80's what a shame they're not around anymore...one of the greatest companies ever!

[@Badcrow7713]

Lmao, "the entire musical score of this film was composed on a computer" - bzzt beep boop, lol no shit

[@11Kralle]

Just listen to the early works of Stockhausen and you'll see how normal the "entire musical score of this film" was.

[@Wen6543]

@Mish Elf, that was 1968, it wasn´t that obvious back then, this people made all modern technology possible yet here you are, using all this marvelous developments to show the entire World how moronic you are.

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

Electronic music... 1930s... Okay.

[@bestonyoutube]

That can produce nearly endless variantions of sounds.

[@psyrapmafia]

lol that part made me laugh too although I know back then a listener would have to be told.

[@dwsel]

For some reason when I was a child I thought those machines make all those synthesizer sounds while working 😂

[@BasedBidoof]

it's insane how far we've come

[@n-nencanao9986]

Cuando vez estos programas y que tienen tan pocas visitas, sabes que hay algo mal en el mundo 😪

[@panierter_luan]

And now we have transistors the size of atoms. Science is truely magnificent!

[@hattree]

They never should have broken up the telephone company. So much pure research came out of it. Nothing like this comes out of any successor companies. It's really sad.

[@margemiller8017]

Nice they got Orson Wells to narrate

[@a_random_voice_in_the_void]

I wandered the comment section, endlessly, for days, searching for "Orson Welles". There were times I thought I wouldn't make it. I ran out of food. But then, there you were... 😭

[@MemeReviewer]

jazzpunk anyone?

[@krisraps]

Quarantine Makes Me Watch All These Cool Old Videos.

[@MrTurbo_]

It's crazy that in 50 years we went from punch cards and computers that were just glorified calculators to deep learning based self driving cars running on gpu's that have more computing power then every computer combined 50 years ago

[@BILLY-px3hw]

our computers are still primitive we just don't realize it, in 50 years our computers will be laughable. Ha Ha they are amazed by self driving cars how charming life was in the early 2000s

[@domobrah2671]

Our modern computers are basically thousands, even millions of these old computers combined.

[@howardbaxter2514]

BILLY agreed. Just look at how we laugh at the dinosaurs of 10-15 years ago.

[@virtualatall]

Still we don't have flying cars, self tying shoes and self drying jackets

[@raccoon344]

virtualatall we go have self tying shoes Nike makes them

[@boyitalian21]

what an absolutely insane documentary, this is just so impressive, i cant wrap my head around the genius needed to spearhead the eras and movements of actually understanding these fundamentals of digital and sound art

[@jmalmsten]

I accidentally had auto captions on during playback... It interprets the beeps as speech at the section around 6:10 ... For some reason I found that fascinating. :D

[@kwetalbreinbaas1300]

WTF, 6:26 "promotion republican" these are subliminal messages from the past!

[@BlunderMunchkin]

Pretty good example of how computers have gotten faster, but not necessarily better.

[@papa_xan]

I find it fascinating that so much of the actual speech is terribly translated.

[@mikeandjustinlive5150]

jmalmsten The brutal purple from people broke rabin on remind bravo are all these have hadn’t usually mean approved for her don’t have higher being resistat them manual and balloons promotion republican

[@KTPitts]

Fucking creepy.

[@banenefleur]

came here from idkhow! (i dont know how but they found me) after digging through the internet to try and figure out the puzzle for the ARG side, looks like I found a really cool machine instead~ thank you for posting this lovely machine!

[@mitoluil9380]

did they done a Electronic Spice schematic simulation with Resistors/Diodes/Capacitors... in 1968...back then... AND with touch screen Monitor...? crazy

[@lucasimark7992]

Mito Luil yeah I’m blown away...

[@allmycircuits8850]

It's not touch screen, it's light pen :) Amazingly simple thing: it's just a photodiode with a button. But because CRT screens show just one point at time (it travels left to right, from top to bottom), by the time this photodiode got its pulse we know at which part of monitor it was! But yes, result is the same, even more precise actually. There is no way it can be miscalibrated! Really strange this became obsolete at PCs.

[@bennylloyd-willner9667]

@@allmycircuits8850 I made one (lightpen) to use with my Commodore 64 when I was about 15. It was in the era where you could actually do computer stuff AND be active outdoors with football and more😁

[@sermerlin1]

@@allmycircuits8850 It is actually touchscreen. The definition of touchscreen is that you can control the computer by touching the screen (doesn't matter if it's a finger or a tool like a photodiode pen). They actually had a god damn touchscreen in '68. I'm fucking impressed.

[@victorruiz7359]

Yeah we definitely had enough tech to land on the moon

[@turingsghost]

Some of these user interfaces seem easier to use than the ones we have today. Maybe it's just because there's less to look at, but that click-drag circuit diagram editor seems more usable than some of the ones I've used.

[@01DOGG01]

No probs. It blew my mind as well. So far ahead of its time! If only people focused more on developing awesome things, and less on making massive profits and starting wars...

[@Dracopol]

6:08 "Man and his World/Terre des Hommes" was the theme of the International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, in Montreal.

[@0REPULSIVE0]

la expo co es en mariano roque alonso jajajaja

[@MichiganPeatMoss]

Perfectly in sync with the psychedelic lsd-experimenting population of the same decade. Surprising from Bell labs and their big budget, but brainstorming and playing around were essential.

[@BrightBlueJim]

Oh, I think the graphic designer with the moustache was one of them.

[@DarenPage]

I'm getting so much enjoyment from the comments for this video. Electronic engineers for life!

[@GARYINLEEDS]

In my opinion, Moses. was the first to Download with His Tablet from The Cloud.

[@MrRogerogerio]

Thanks, Jazzpunk, for bringing me here.

[@blinkinglightsandsmokingcaps]

9:17 - this may be the actual PDP-7 that was used to develop the initial version of Unix. It came from the Visual & Acoustic Research Department once deemed to be surplus to requirements.

[@jimmyrichards2909]

Incredible, watching this is on an iPad in 2019.

[@commenzator]

Circular displays and groovy sound effects are obviously the future.

[@MrAwol007]

they use this now in north korea missile program

[@brandonnorris1026]

@Viggen lol

[@boblewis5558]

For anyone interested the computer was not a Bell labs machine merely a general market 12 bit mini computer that had already been around for 4 to 5 years when this film was made in 1963. It was called the PDP5 from Digital Equipment Corporation the inventor of the Mini Computer the PDP-1 in 1959: images.app.goo.gl/gd3LAbuWCZM7jedi8 and known by its much more common moniker of DEC. The company for whom I worked from Jan 3 1979 to SEP 11 1994. They were the later maker of the PDP range of computers including the famous (also 12 bit) PDP8 Mini computer that was not much bigger than two stacked IBM desktop PCs 2 decades later and arguably more powerful than X86 models due to its 12 bit RISC operation. Then came the PDP 11 series, arguably the most successful range of computers after IBM mainframe class and the much later PC systems. Those systems were CISC 16 bit with max memory up to 4MB depending on model. Then came the even more famous VAX 11/780 and many further variants of VAXen (plural of VAX for non initiates) these were the first 32 bit minicomputers. One exception was the awesomely engineered, immensely capable VAX 9000 mainframe system that didn't prove all that successful sadly. VAXen were followed by the first 64 bit minicomputers anywhere and set a phenomenal new high bar for CAD workstations based in the technology. As for those graphics screens in 1968 ... they were essentially already 9 years old as they'd been initially used as the output terminal on the DEC PDP-1 back in 1959! The first graphical computer games that ever existed AFAIK were Asteroids and MoonLander BOTH of which were developed on DEC machines and used standard graphics adapters of the time. Incidentally, DEC were the people who brought Ethernet to the market and made it the ubiquitous standard it is today and we're also the people that produced DECtalk ... the original box that produced Stephen Hawking's voice! I actually "spoke" in his "voice", as did many others of whom I know, at least a year before he did. Some of the facile comments made by people born only in this century indicate the truly APPALLING lack of knowledge, comprehension and understanding of computer history that there is. I consider myself very lucky and privileged to have worked in the industry from starting my computer science A-level the year this film was made until today. I have now been retired over 10 years but I'm now designing, for fun and home automation, and programming Arduino (and similar) microcontroller based systems that can have full 32 bit CPUs AND peripherals on a single chip less than a centimeter square compared to the first 32 bit systems that were the size of TWO double fridge freezers - at least! Today we have computers that can run over a million times faster, address over a million times more memory and have single disk drives that can handle so much data in a sandwich sized device or even flash drives that a whole fleet of trucks loaded with disk drives from the late 60's to early 70's wouldn't get close to being able to store. Just think how you're going to feel in the middle of this century (if you're still around) when you look back to today and recall the changes YOU will have seen. Enjoy! The future has been here for over 50 years already!

[@BrightBlueJim]

Well, it's bit of a stretch to call the VAX 11/780 a minicomputer, since it was about the size of a small System/360. It wasn't until the MicroVAX and VAXstation were introduced that you could call a VAX a minicomputer.

[@purefoldnz3070]

Now all this technology is used to create Overwatch porn. How far we've come.

[@x__ray8830]

Lamp

[@thesupervisor4515]

My friend, there is more than Overwatch porn! This is the Internet! Whatever you dream is possible here... Terms and conditions apply* *We are not responsible for any and all FBI Home invasions that may happen due to your browsing tastes.

[@humaidalqubaisi9194]

in 20 years , AI machines will be showing that picture as "Great Grand Dad" ,,,,, to their machine made AI Robots.

[@kentneumann5209]

humaid alqubaisi - No they won't. They will erase the memory of humans as their creator. Or if they do it will be heavily sanitized.

[@AChris-wz5kg]

some of these pictures are trippy

[@Gribbo9999]

I like the bit where Prof. Hawking sings us a pleasant song. I've heard that before somewhere. It might have been a podcast or pod bay doors, something like that.

[@MartinFarrell1972]

It features in the film 2001

[@zfid]

@@MartinFarrell1972 I'm sorry Dave..

[@alister917]

OH MY GOD THE FIRST CGI

[@maiamaiapapaya]

"...or even pick up a telephone one day and write a movie!"

[@LDTV22OfficialChannel]

For 1968 this was something.

[@jorllima]

It is a lot of effort and investment just for sharing mainly porn.

[@johnmc67]

Can’t look forward, without looking back.

[@Garthdon]

I love these guys, they had so 'little' to work with compared to now, and yet are making stuff most of us won't.

[@harry356]

How communicative are these nerds! Huge difference from nowadays.

[@drummergirl4239]

cathode ray cathode ray touch screens in 1968. insane!

[@01DOGG01]

Not sure how that works. It might have to do with timing/scanline activation to determine the position. CRTs doing line by line x times per second is just as mind blowing to me.

[@PrinceWesterburg]

Absolute madness sir, it will never take off!

[@user2C47]

Have you heard about drones? Most aircraft that fly today contain a computer of some sort. r/whoooosh

[@FenixDown147]

The music @ 4:50 was later used by "I don't know how but they found me -Do it all the time" in a song

[@levoGAMES]

The possibilities they had back then were already incredible.

[@tamaspeter5632]

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, president of IBM, 1943

[@nickv1008]

And the power of an early pocket calculator.

[@leogoulart7229]

Background music from "Music from Mathematics" (1960)

[@AnonEMoose-mr8jm]

It seems to me that this was back in the day when programmers truly had to have a scientific mind and their was discipline in the field. Now it seems that we take our massive computing resources for granted. Programming today seems largely undisciplined and various competing methodologies exist (scrum, agile, waterfall, etc) which don't seem to incorporate the scientific method. They exist to maximize the accumulation of capital, often at the expense of program correctness, efficient use of computing resources, and efficient use of a programmer's time. It seems that when computers became more readily available, the market took over and it wasn't the best systems that won it was the systems that most appealed to the consumer. So we have operating systems with poor security models and serious flaws but consumers drink the kool-aid because they don't know any better. This isn't an argument for every consumer being an engineer. In all likelihood things won't change and I'm just pissing in the wind. But it still makes me think about a world made slightly better through superior FLOSS systems. Look at systems like Plan9. Surely UI/UX guys could have made it easy to use but no one bothered with it because the existing systems were "good enough" (to quote ESR). Everything we have that people call "the cloud" could have been done by focusing on distributed systems and making it easy for the end user to create voluntary grids. The end user wouldn't have to know that they're part of a grid computing system they would've just needed an interface. Peer to peer, distributed, and decentralized systems could have been made safe long ago but these systems won't maximize the accumulation of capital. We have working examples of certificateless public key cryptography. We have capability based security. Software doesn't have to be so dammed mediocre but it is because of corporate greed. So we'll get our software as a service served to us by the giant megacorps and we'll happily pay them for the most basic functions of a computer not realizing we're being driven back to the mainframe age. It is pitiful.

[@xerzy]

@Eevel Ewe why? This comment is actually pretty much on point - it's not necessarily the good old "you know, on *my* days" or a case of "old man yells at cloud", but there's a pretty spot on (albeit not formal at all) analysis on how software development derailed from good design and focused instead into making software faster to develop and market for consumers, when we could have instead developed more reliable and efficient technologies that serve us the same or better stuff decades ago already Edit: perhaps there's missing context and you're replying to something that was deleted? Can't tell so better make sure

[@AexisRai]

@Cataclysm You're just wearing the opposite pair of glasses. OP is not simply saying "it used to be better". It's saying "there are specific ways in which it is worse" and "there are reasons why it did not become vastly better than it is".

[@Longlius]

One of the issues though is that, already, our need for new software is far outstripping programmer time. For the last 30 years or so, programmer time has been worth significantly more than computer time. So it doesn't make sense for programmers to write tight code - they need to write maintainable software that can easily be repurposed for new applications.

[@schmootheonly]

Its amazing this was engineered on a transistor computer, people think it's so basic compared to today

[@Rouverius]

10:25 - "Dave, My mind is going... I can feel it..."

[@fredyearian4968]

PDP7 with a 340 display!

[@01DOGG01]

WOW! How old are you? How can you just recognise it like it's nothing? It's a PDP5 though. I did go ahead verify the display in a 1965 article... Graphic 1: a remote graphical display console system William H. Ninke Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., Murray Hill, New Jersey "Type 340 Precision Incremental CRT Display"

[@thelaughingman79]

someday the world might need as many as 5 computers.

[@jackburton37211]

in my basement alone i have 7 that i use lol...

[@thelaughingman79]

@@jackburton37211 thats a quote from the chairman of ibm around this time i think..maybe earlier

[@jackburton37211]

@@thelaughingman79 oh i know, he said that back in 1943 i think. I was trying to be funny with you but it did not come across well. Cheers!

[@Mishkafofer]

send it to Wacom. This light pen works with no lag.

[@darkwinter6028]

Problem is USB... it’s polling rate is too low. Go find an Apple store & play with a new iPad Pro & Apple Pencil 2 - it’s got a very high update rate & predictive processing that keeps the line that you are drawing under the stylus tip. Spendy setup, but it’s currently the best out there...

[@JarrettWilliams99]

but can it run crysis

[@01DOGG01]

You piqued my curiosity and I actually looked into the system. Added some info tho the video description. It had 200 Kiloflops of power. Think about this: In 1997, Intel's 'ASCI Red' super-computer achieved a peak of 1.3 Teraflops. In 2014, AMD's 'R9 295X2' video-card achieved a peak of 11.6 Teraflops. If you look at images of the thing, it took up an entire office space. In a mere 17 years, a single card in your PC case has 10x the power. Back in the day, arcade gameboards were breaking records: 1981 - Sega 'G80' 1982 - Namco 'Pole Position' 1985 - Sega 'System 16' 1988 - Namco 'System 21' 1989 - Atari 'Hard Drivin'' 1990 - Namco 'System 21' (more cores)

[@pearlmax]

Shut up Bieber

[@cesteres]

On vector graphics screen.

[@user2C47]

No. It cannot.

[@l3p3]

It cannot since it does not have enough memory.

[@GrandpaHerman1]

By the year 2000, an entire computer may be as small as a single automobile.