Inventing Intelligence: On the History of Complex Information Processing and Artificial Intelligence in the United States in the Mid-Twentieth Century

In the mid-1950s, researchers in the United States melded formal theories of problem solving and intelligence with another powerful new tool for control: the electronic digital computer. Several branches of western mathematical science emerged from this nexus, including computer science (1960s–), data science (1990s–) and artificial intelligence (AI). This thesis offers an account of the origins and politics of AI in the mid-twentieth century United States, which focuses on its imbrications in systems of societal control. In an effort to denaturalize the power relations upon which the field came into being, I situate AI’s canonical origin story in relation to the structural and intellectual priorities of the U.S. military and American industry during the Cold War, circa 1952 to 1961. This thesis offers a detailed and comparative account of the early careers, research interests, and key outputs of four researchers often credited with laying the foundations for AI and machine learning—Herbert A. Simon, Frank Rosenblatt, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky. It chronicles the distinct ways in which each sought to formalise and simulate human mental behaviour using digital electronic computers. Rather than assess their contributions as discontinuous with what came before, as in mythologies of AI's genesis, I establish continuities with, and borrowings from, management science and operations research (Simon), Hayekian economics and instrumentalist statistics (Rosenblatt), automatic coding techniques and pedagogy (McCarthy), and cybernetics (Minsky), along with the broadscale mobilization of Cold War-era civilian-led military science generally. I assess how Minsky’s 1961 paper 'Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence' simultaneously consolidated and obscured these entanglements as it set in motion an initial research agenda for AI in the following two decades. I argue that mind-computer metaphors, and research in complex information processing generally, played an important role in normalizing the small- and large-scale structuring of social behaviour using mathematics in the United States from the second half of the twentieth century onward

Independent or indie? creative autonomy and cultural capital in independent video game production

The use of the word ‘indie’ in relation to video games has shifted from referring to games made independently of a large publisher to being a more nebulous term that is harder to define but that is clearly used at times to refer to games other than those made without the financial assistance of publishers. This thesis seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate in academic writing on video games as to the meaning of the phrase ‘indie games’. The thesis combines textual and institutional analysis to contextualise the modern indie game by investigating the history of independent video game production in the UK and USA from the 1970s to the modern day, with reference to how changes in technology have shaped independent video game production over time. Alternative models of production that existed before the indie games of the mid-2000s onwards are an under researched area, and this thesis argues that a number of independent counter trends to dominant industry practices set precedents for many of the features of later indie games, in terms of content, style, distribution methods, and models of production. The thesis also contains a case study into the publisher-funded indie games of Jenova Chen and Thatgamecompany which investigates the conflicting definitions of indie in academic writing on video games and other forms of media, arguing that as with indie in cinema, indie in games functions as a form of cultural capital for the audience and developers. Finally, through an investigation into games made in the ‘independent space’ of the games industry, or games made independently of publishers, the thesis explores the notion of creative autonomy, arguing that there is not a straightforward correlation between ‘independent thought’ and ‘independent funding’, and that this independent space is a often a site of co-creation and audience participation that at once functions as a modern independent counter trend to dominant industry practices while also influencing and changing those same dominant practices

History of Computer Art

A large text presents the history of Computer Art. The history of the artistic uses of computers and computing processes is reconstructed from its beginnings in the fifties to its present state. It points out hypertextual, modular and generative modes to use computing processes in Computer Art and features examples of early developments in media like cybernetic sculptures, video tools, computer graphics and animation (including music videos and demos), video and computer games, pervasive games, reactive installations, virtual reality, evolutionary art and net art. The functions of relevant art works are explained more detailed than is usual in such histories. From October 2011 to December 2012 the chapters have been published successively in German (The English translation started in August 2013 and was completed in June 2014)

The moments of, and movements for national accounts: contextualising changes to British national accounting during the 1930s to 1950s

The moments of, and movements for national accounts: contextualising changes to British national accounting during the 1930s to 1950s Matthew Philip James Fright Abstract Despite a renewed interest in the origins of national income accounting, and increasing scholarship on the relationship this has to the State, there is further scope for us to better understand the context of how this came about. We do not fully understand how institutional factors shaped them or what the numbers themselves meant to the researchers. This thesis adopts a historical approach informed by the works of Geoffrey Hodgson and Quentin Skinner to better understand a critical juncture in national accounts transformation – the 1941 publication of White Paper Command Paper 6261 An analysis of War Finance and an Estimate of National Income and Expenditure – and how it was influenced by wider intellectual and institutional changes from the 1930s. The thesis is organised in two parts. In the first part, the Moments of National Accounts, Chapter 3 argues that 1930s economics drew on heroic figures from the distant past to justify new approaches to economics. Chapter 4 zooms out to consider the influence of international bodies such as the League of Nations and the Rockefeller Foundation during the 1930s upon a new data-driven, “realistic” approach to economics. Chapter 5 looks at how wider pressures for new wartime finance approaches justified new technocratic approaches which led to the publication of the first official national accounts. The second part, the Movements for National Accounts, examines the institutionalisation of this new technocratic national accounting approach through two case studies. Chapter 5 considers the way Keynes and Stone founded the Department of Applied Economics in Cambridge as a research centre for furthering a “realistic” research agenda. Chapter 6 examines a confluence of interests between the Colonial Office’s desire to export national accounts public finance, the researchers of the DAE and the colonial government of Nigeria led to the publication of the National Accounts of Nigeria in 1951. The contribution of the thesis is twofold: 1) showing how context matters to the idea of National Accounts culminating in the 1941 publication; and 2) showing why and how ideas became institutionalised after World War II. By unpacking both, this thesis shows how different bases of thought, rationale and contextual factors informed what National Accounts became in the UK, importantly, in ways that differ from thinking about National Accounts today.Pigott Scholarship; Queens' College Munro Studentship; and, Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust

History of Computer Art

The development of the use of computers and software in art from the Fifties to the present is explained. As general aspects of the history of computer art an interface model and three dominant modes to use computational processes (generative, modular, hypertextual) are presented. The "History of Computer Art" features examples of early developments in media like cybernetic sculptures, computer graphics and animation (including music videos and demos), video and computer games, reactive installations, virtual reality, evolutionary art and net art. The functions of relevant art works are explained more detailed than usual in such histories. The German version was completed in December 2012. The last chapter of the English translation was published in June 2014. First update: September 2015

History of Computer Art

Die Entwicklung von Computer und Software von den fünfziger Jahren bis heute wird vorgestellt. Als Leitkriterien der Geschichte der Computerkunst werden ein Interface-Modell und drei Arten, Rechenprozesse einzusetzen (generativ, modular, hyptertextuell), vorgeschlagen. Die "Geschichte der Computerkunst"/"History of Computer Art" erörtert Beispiele aus frühen Entwicklungsphasen von Kunstformen wie Kybernetische Skulpturen, Computergraphik und -animation (einschließlich Musikvideos und Demos), Videokunst und Computerspielen, reaktive Installationen, Virtuelle Realität, Evolutionäre Kunst und Netzkunst. Die Funktionen der ausgewählten Werke werden detaillierter vorgestellt als dies in vergleichbaren Geschichten üblich ist. Die deutsche Version wurde bis Dezember 2012 kapitelweise in IASLonline Lektionen/Lessons in Net Art publiziert. Das letzte Kapitel der englischen Version wurde Juni 2014 veröffentlicht. Im September 2015 wurde ein erstes Update eingestellt

History of Computer Art, Second Edition

The development of the use of computers and software in art from the Fifties to the present is explained. As general aspects of the history of computer art an interface model and three dominant modes to use computational processes (generative, modular, hypertextual) are presented. The "History of Computer Art" features examples of early developments in media like cybernetic sculptures, computer graphics and animation (including music videos and demos), video and computer games, reactive installations, virtual reality, evolutionary art and net art. The functions of relevant art works are explained more detailed than usual in such histories. The second edition for the Book on Demand (Lulu Press, 2020) includes an update of chapter II.1.1 (first edition 2014)