3 ms·

Fun rabbit hole here about the III FR80, the computer used to make the effects. 1970s computer that could scan and print to film stock. There's a great website

Fun rabbit hole here about the III FR80, the computer used to make the effects. 1970s computer that could scan and print to film stock. There's a great website that's preserved a lot of info on this computer here: http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/technology/fr80/overview.htm http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/acl/technology/fr80/over... III (or Triple-I) was a computer company founded by Edward Fredkin. He's a fascinating early computer scientist, doing pioneering work in cellular automata, reversible computing, as well as more mundane things like the trie data structure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fredkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fredkin

MarkMMullin 7y ago
ZOMG - a brain neuron from decades ago woke up - worked on some weird stuff in reversible computing in the '80s (think of assignment always preserving functional state at assignment) - my boss used to talk about his gates, usually referring to them by a more profane name . :-)
- NelsonMinar 7y ago
  I've wondered if reversible computing research has had any real world impact. The theory is it would reduce heat since you're not increasing entropy, but I wonder in practice if that has ever been useful.
  - MarkMMullin 7y ago
    All the experience I had was theorem proving for crypto apps - that said, I think there is only the appearance of reversibility at the symbolic level, underneath its the same old mess - I vaguely recall that at full tilt, the room with all the Suns would get quite toasty . :-)
thom 7y ago
The $100,000 prize won by Deep Blue for beating Kasparov was the Edward Fredkin prize (originally created in 1980).
martincmartin 7y ago
Ed Fredkin was also the inspiration for Stephen Falken's character in War Games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fredkin#WarGames https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fredkin#WarGames

MarkMMullin 7y ago

ZOMG - a brain neuron from decades ago woke up - worked on some weird stuff in reversible computing in the '80s (think of assignment always preserving functional state at assignment) - my boss used to talk about his gates, usually referring to them by a more profane name . :-)

NelsonMinar 7y ago
I've wondered if reversible computing research has had any real world impact. The theory is it would reduce heat since you're not increasing entropy, but I wonder in practice if that has ever been useful.
- MarkMMullin 7y ago
  All the experience I had was theorem proving for crypto apps - that said, I think there is only the appearance of reversibility at the symbolic level, underneath its the same old mess - I vaguely recall that at full tilt, the room with all the Suns would get quite toasty . :-)

thom 7y ago

The $100,000 prize won by Deep Blue for beating Kasparov was the Edward Fredkin prize (originally created in 1980).

martincmartin 7y ago

Ed Fredkin was also the inspiration for Stephen Falken's character in War Games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fredkin#WarGames https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fredkin#WarGames