<p>Recently I interviewed Peter E Hart, an electrical engineer who was an early artificial intelligence researcher, about one of the first robots, a machine named Shakey that was designed at SRI International beginning in 1966.<br /><br /></p>.<p> SRI was one of the laboratories from which many personal computing and networking technologies were first developed.<br /><br />The forerunner to today’s Internet, the ARPAnet, began with a first link between SRI and UCLA in 1969, and for years afterward only an elite group of engineers, scientists and students had any idea of what computer networking was.<br /><br />After I left his office, Peter remembered an additional story about the early ARPAnet. With his permission, here is an e-mail he sent to me:<br /><br />SRI International, where I was the director of the AI Center, was periodically visited by the US government auditors. One day I got a call from an internal contracts administrator telling me to expect such a visit– in other words, I was supposed to be on my best behaviour.<br /><br />The government auditor soon appeared in my office, armed with a no-nonsense demeanour and a bulging briefcase. He pulled up a chair, pulled a file from his briefcase, and without preamble said in an authoritarian tone of voice, “Dr Hart, it says here that you’ve received 2,493,786,916 packets of bits. Is that correct?”<br /><br />I certainly hadn’t expected that question, but I was on my best behaviour, so I politely replied, “Well, I’m not sure of the exact number, but that sounds about right.” He made a check mark on his file. He then asked, “Were adequate procedures set up to inspect the condition of these incoming packets?”<br /><br />I was starting to get an inkling of where this was going. I thought there must be some error-detecting codes somewhere in the communication path, so I simply answered “Yes”. A second check mark. Next he asked, “And did all the packets arrive in good condition? Was there any corrosion or tarnish on any of the packets?”<br /><br />At this point I was struggling to keep a straight face, but I truthfully answered, “No sir, there was no tarnish or corrosion on any of the packets we received.” One more check mark.<br /><br />Another question: “And did you have adequate facilities available to store all of these packets?” I thought, hey, didn’t you see all those disk drives in the machine room across from my office? So I answered, “Yes.” He made a final check mark, stuffed the file back into his briefcase, thanked me and left. You can’t make this stuff up.<br /></p>
<p>Recently I interviewed Peter E Hart, an electrical engineer who was an early artificial intelligence researcher, about one of the first robots, a machine named Shakey that was designed at SRI International beginning in 1966.<br /><br /></p>.<p> SRI was one of the laboratories from which many personal computing and networking technologies were first developed.<br /><br />The forerunner to today’s Internet, the ARPAnet, began with a first link between SRI and UCLA in 1969, and for years afterward only an elite group of engineers, scientists and students had any idea of what computer networking was.<br /><br />After I left his office, Peter remembered an additional story about the early ARPAnet. With his permission, here is an e-mail he sent to me:<br /><br />SRI International, where I was the director of the AI Center, was periodically visited by the US government auditors. One day I got a call from an internal contracts administrator telling me to expect such a visit– in other words, I was supposed to be on my best behaviour.<br /><br />The government auditor soon appeared in my office, armed with a no-nonsense demeanour and a bulging briefcase. He pulled up a chair, pulled a file from his briefcase, and without preamble said in an authoritarian tone of voice, “Dr Hart, it says here that you’ve received 2,493,786,916 packets of bits. Is that correct?”<br /><br />I certainly hadn’t expected that question, but I was on my best behaviour, so I politely replied, “Well, I’m not sure of the exact number, but that sounds about right.” He made a check mark on his file. He then asked, “Were adequate procedures set up to inspect the condition of these incoming packets?”<br /><br />I was starting to get an inkling of where this was going. I thought there must be some error-detecting codes somewhere in the communication path, so I simply answered “Yes”. A second check mark. Next he asked, “And did all the packets arrive in good condition? Was there any corrosion or tarnish on any of the packets?”<br /><br />At this point I was struggling to keep a straight face, but I truthfully answered, “No sir, there was no tarnish or corrosion on any of the packets we received.” One more check mark.<br /><br />Another question: “And did you have adequate facilities available to store all of these packets?” I thought, hey, didn’t you see all those disk drives in the machine room across from my office? So I answered, “Yes.” He made a final check mark, stuffed the file back into his briefcase, thanked me and left. You can’t make this stuff up.<br /></p>