Vintage COMPUTER CYBERNETICS 1960s UK ELLIOTT 803, Soviet URAL-2 Chess British Computer AI Robotics

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Wow, that's a real gem of a film. Fascinating stuff back then and still now.

[@agranero6]

The movie can be Hungarian but the book on chess is by Mikhail Tal. There is a lot of "poetic license" in the movie. The paper tape is not used during processing just to enter the code. It would be prohibitively SLOOOOOW to do so even for that era standards, idem for the magnetic tape they are used for storage and don't keep running during processing (just like you see in old movies). I can't understand what are those sounds during the chess play or why the oscilloscope is there, I think is just to create a futuristic ambiance.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @agranero6, good observations! Yes, there is a bit of "Hollywood" production in the film, perhaps designed to convey a mood in the audience and awe of the future. On the table, there is also the book by Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics. I wonder if there are "behind the scenes" outakes of this film, somewhere in Hungarian archives. Would be fascinating! Thanks for the great input! ~ Victor

[@ChrisDuke45]

Wow, the 803B was the first computer I ever programmed, while taking my degree in Electrical Engineering at Rugby Colledge of Engineering Technology - 1963 - 1967. At the very start of my career in the Computer Industry. Hard to imagine that a college with only 400 students had one of these. Two great Engineering Companies in the UK supported the college, AEI and English Electric.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @ChrisDuke45, Yes, AEI and English Electric (known best in the UK), are two great computer company names. Thank you for the great info and feedback! ~ VK, CHAP

[@frankowalker4662]

The true pioneers.

[@SP-uq5gp]

Great film. Thanks CHAP once again for preserving it for us. Somehow the last scene lighting the match seems rather fake.... Nevertheless, there's some nice footage of Elliot and URAL.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Perhaps you are right. There is not a lot of information about how this film was made, or its experiments. Makes one wonder.... Thank you for the thought provoking feedback! ~ VK

[@weerobot]

Amazing...

[@PeterOGB]

I maintain the Elliott 803 at The National Museum of Computing in the UK. There is some "smoke and mirrors" going on in this film. For example at around 16:27 when the 803 is shown the sounds are being create by an 803, but not by a chess playing program. They are very clearly the sound produced by library program W5 "Electronic Music" which uses a pseudo-random sequence to compose the "tune" in real time. I have the manual page for this program open on my desk as I type this. Also none of the 'scope traces shown come from inside an 803. In the shots of the Magnetic Film Handers they look to be moving as when running library program X7 "FILM STORE TESTS". As Airton Granero has commented there is a lot of "Poetic license".

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @PeterOGB, thank you very much for your insight and feedback on this film. Yes, I agree completely that there is a lot of "Poetic license" in the creation of this film. It seems the creator was trying to use some dramatic enactments to make his points and it did not come across as factual or scientific when viewing the final product. I would have preferred if he had shown much more of the computer hardware, and some of the internals (and the Soviet machine as well), which would made it much more interesting and useful as an historical film. Thanks for sharing your observations on this! It helps clarify what some people may have been thinking when viewing it. ~ I hope to be able to visit the National Museum of Computing (UK) some day! ~ VK

[@PeterOGB]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject If you would like I can identify the various parts (internal and external) of the 803 that appear in the film.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @PeterOGB, yes, by all means, that would be most helpful. The creator of the film never even mentioned the name or origin of the 803 that he put in the film. That was a big omission on his part, since it is a part of history all by itself. Thank you! ~ Victor, CHAP

[@W1RMD]

Awesome as always! Cool that I have some Hungarian ancestry.

[@bblod4896]

Cool. The birth of AI. I hope that's not the demise of humans.

[@itzhexen0]

It will be trillions of ai’s because of globalization. You won’t even be able to track all the ones that want to kill you.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Yes, let's hope we survive and thrive, with AI as a tool, not a master. : )

[@itzhexen0]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject well you turned most of the planet into programmers and you’re teaching all of them ai. Take a guess about what is going to happen.

[@itzhexen0]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject the world doesn’t run on hope. I’ve tried that.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Yes, you have a point there. : )