Edmund Berkeley and the social responsibility of computer professionals / Bernadette Longo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Longo, Bernadette, 1949- author.

Series:

ACM books ; 2374-6777 #6.

ACM books, 2374-6777 ; #6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Berkeley, Edmund Callis.

Computer scientists--United States--Biography.

Computer scientists.

Computers and civilization.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 208 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

[New York] : Association for Computing Machinery ; [San Rafael, California] : Morgan & Claypool, 2015.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Summary:

Edmund Callis Berkeley was born on March 20, 1909 in New York City. From 1918- 1923, he attended St. Bernard's School for Boys at 111 East 60th Street, where he learned about the sciences, the arts, creativity, and character. During that time, Berkeley recalled, "The first ambition I ever had was to paint black fences orange. In New York in the East Sixties when I was a child being taken to the park, I used to see every now and then men in white suits transforming dirty iron fences into radiant red-orange glory." Berkeley never lost this ambition to transform "what is" into "what could be." Ultimately, Berkeley's story is one of electronic computer development and politics. Ever the inventor, Berkeley transformed his visions of the future into intelligent machines to help people make good decisions. Ever the teacher, Berkeley transformed his trials into parables to help people tell truth from falsehood. With the perspective of time, we can follow his story somewhere in the grey areas between true and false.

Contents:

Introduction: a struggle of ideas

With the perspective of time

The myth of autonomy

1. Modern methods of thinking, 1927-1941

A modern method of thinking

Becoming an insurance actuary and a husband

Applications of symbolic logic in the insurance industry

2. Navy assignment at the Harvard Computation Lab, 1944-1946

Joining Aiken's crew

Conflict inside the Harvard Lab

3. Establishing open communication channels for technology development, 1945-1948

Public-private partnerships

Prudential explores electronic computers

Technology development, communication, and public policy

Opening a professional association for computer people

Future catastrophe hazards

4. Robots and giant brains, 1942-1961

Problems of language and intelligence

Speaking of machines as human

Bringing giant brains to the people

Computing on a small scale

A preview of the robot age

5. National security investigations, 1948-1955

Fighting the Communist threat at home

The Rosenberg case

Defense against unnamed sources

Questions of constitutional rights

The Oppenheimer case

6. Engineering peace, 1948-1970

Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.

The dawn of the computer age

Engineering weapons

Total war and works of peace

Nuclear disarmament and Communist infiltration

Sharing information before the Internet

7. A denunciation of killing devices, 1952-1972

Using computers for peaceful purposes

The conscience of the computer industry

8. The remaking of man, 1973-1987

Taking stock of a life

Bibliography

Author's biography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-208).

Title from PDF title page (viewed on November 7, 2015).

Other Format:

Print version:

OCLC:

928161445

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.