"The Information Machine" describes either the computer, circa 1958, when this great IBM film was made, or the human beings using it. A fascinating short, urging a view of computing as an aid to art and memory.
It's carefully aimed at allaying fears of computers, too. You'll hear the theme that people ("man") controls devices, not the other way around. Note the emphasis on computers as connected with art, design, prognostication, love, play, work... but not math, whenever possible.
There are also copies at Archive.org.
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Fun stuff, Bryan. This is one of the Eames's films (the same folks who made Powers of Ten, and also those groovy chairs). Tara McPherson at USC has been doing a bunch of critical work on the Eames Office and the ways that their various projects served to design the future of information technologies.
Posted by: Account Deleted | July 03, 2006 at 16:39
Powers of Ten is marvelous. We use that in our multimedia narrative/digital storytelling class.
Thanks for the note on Tara MacPherson.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | July 05, 2006 at 09:00