This is in general a great BBC documentary from 1978, well worth watching in full. It might be the only time Intel permitted cameras to record the production process of silicon chips?
Uh? "This video contains content from Crowley Media, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
Anyone having the same problem? (I'm in NY)
EDIT: ok, I got it. This is from BBC, so likely only available in the UK. I found a copy on their site [1], and the player is more explicit - "BBC iPlayer only works in the UK. Sorry, it’s due to rights issues." Need to watch through VPN...
Those tech demos at the beginning (text to speech and voice control) feel funny considering that we are still tackling and demoing basically the same things. Sure, something like Google Duplex is slightly more advanced, but the concept of having computer communicate with voice (on both ways) seem to have been fascinating people since the beginnings of computing. There are also parallels to be drawn between self-driving cars and that computer controlled wheel-chair.
Plus ça change
edit: oh wow, more of the same:
> Such chips will totally revolutionarize our way of life, they are the reason why Japan is abandoning its ship building, and why our children will grow up without jobs to go to
They are playing the "robots are stealing our jobs" line very heavily in the video. Insightful viewing for modern audience to gain perspective for current discussions.
Interesting in the same way is the question, why didn't the techno-utopia arrive? Even 1980s technology is enough to achieve a big lot of automation that we still dont see in society
Lots of the automation did happen. Heck, the chip manufacturing detailed in the video itself is great example; pretty much all of the human labor shown there has been eliminated.
Looking at economic trends of the past 100 or so years, there is marked change beginning in the late 70s, especially in various forms of equality. Using automation alone for explaining that would be a folly, but equally folly would be to say that automation has had no economic effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW5Fvk8FNOQ
Anyway it features Robert Noyce at around 9 mins 20 secs in.
Edit: Thanks guiambros for pointing out the stupid region restriction. This link should work for people outside the UK: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x64ng4h