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

Today we explore 1960’s CYBERNETICS, a unique technical film from Hungary, during the early days of CYBERNETIC theory. It takes a high-level look at the complexity of the human brain and contrasts it with the capabilities of early computers. Also, two early computers are shown, the British ELLIOTT 803 (of 1961) and the Soviet URAL-2 computer of 1959. The UK-built ELLIOTT 803 COMPUTER was a highly successful transistorized computer. A special feature was its use of 35mm movie film for its magnetic tapes. The film was manufactured by Kodak and formatted for the computer by Elliott Brothers Ltd. About 250 machines were built, of which only 3 survive. Also seen is a computer controlled robot "Lady Bug" navigating a maze; a Chess master competing with a computer; and later in the film, an amputee is connected to computer sensors that allow him to move a robotic arm remotely.
Second half of the film, we see the Soviet URAL-2 Machine, a large vacuum tube computer. It was built in 1959 for scientific use and deployed to various parts of the Soviet Union during the 1960’s. About 139 of the Soviet machines were made. They were part of a large family of URAL computers made during the cold war era. The creator of the film was trying to predict the future use of AI. How close did he come?
2k and 4k Stock Footage available from
Periscope Film
www.periscopefi...
References for more information about each of these two machines are in the appendix,
and in the LINKS below.
ELLIOTT 803 References:
====================
803 - Wikipedia article:
en.wikipedia.or...
The Computer Conservation Society
www.ourcomputer...
The National Museum of Computing:
www.tnmoc.org
www.Bitsavers.org
Gnome’s Computers (803): www.davidviner....
T.Baldwin, History 803: elliott803.sour...
URAL-2 Computer References:
========================
Rand report: Defense Documentation Center
apps.dtic.mil/...
TH-cam VIDEO: 1965 SOVIET COMPUTER SCIENCE FILM URAL 2 ..(Periscope Film)
• 1965 SOVIET COMPUTER S...
Hungary: Computers Behind the Iron Curtain
itf.njszt.hu/w...
Oral History of Charles Simonyi (Computer History Museum)
archive.compute...

[@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

[@SusanAmberBruce]

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

[@frankowalker4662]

The true pioneers.

[@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. : )

[@weerobot]

Amazing...