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The principal aim is to develop
and investigate experimentally

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a new way in which computer
can aid more effectively people

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in their creative work in
their thinking in any field,

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from research to engineering
design, management, education,

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and support.

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The fact of the matter is that
the situation with respect

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to computers today is somewhat
similar as the situation

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with respect to power,
electrical power

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or mechanical power,
immediately following

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the invention of
the steam engine.

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The steam engine made
it possible for people

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to build locomotives, big
machines that could do work

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that no individual, or
group of individual,

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or group of animals, for
that, could possibly do.

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In the same sense,
computers today

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can perform calculations
and logical operation

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that it would take years and
years for any reasonable group

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of people to do by hand.

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The big difference,
particularly to our society,

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came when power
could be distributed

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through the electrical system
and was brought into the home,

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into the offices of people
wherever people worked.

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That made it possible
for the development

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of use of power tools, sewing
machine, vacuum cleaners.

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In a general sense, power put
new powerful physical tools

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in the hands of people.

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Now, what we would like
to do is do the same thing

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for what we might
call logical power

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and bring the
ability of computers

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to perform logical
operation computations

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at the service of the individual
in whatever he may be doing.

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In essence, what
we want is to make

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computers accessible to
people, and access really

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has two aspects--

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a physical aspect,
namely you want

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to be able to operate a computer
from, let's say, near my desk.

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The second is the
intellectual aspect.

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That is person would like to be
able to instruct the computer

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to do what he wants directly
and conveniently, that is using

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terminology and a language that
is convenient to the individual

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and not necessarily
convenient to the computer.

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Now, what has been
stopping the use

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of the computer on the
part of many people

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until now is just this barrier
of instructing the computer.

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And what many scientists, for
instance, have been doing--

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using specialists
called programmers

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to instruct the
computer to solve,

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let's say, the problem that
the scientist may want.

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But this places a real
barrier between the scientist

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and the computer.

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What we would like is
to make it possible,

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for instance, for the
scientist to instruct directly

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the computer and how to do
what the scientist wants.

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Now, there is
another point that I

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want to bring up, namely that
the computer system that we are

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aiming and we are
developing contains

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a great many programs
already developed which are

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at the disposal of the user.

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And in other words,
the user doesn't

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have to instruct the computer
on how to do everything

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that he wants to get done
but only the parts that

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are very special and very new
to the problem with which he's

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concerned at that time.

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Many facilities are
already available

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and stored within the
system, so that in a sense

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each individual has available
literally at his fingertips

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the work of many people
that have preceded it.

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In a very real sense,
the computer system

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that we are just barely
beginning to develop

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will contain what amounts
to a library, a library that

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is available to every
user of the system.

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Now, I think that this is
a extremely important point

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because this is what permits the
facilities of the whole system

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in helping individual to
build up automatically

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almost through this system
being used by many people.

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That is the work
of each individual

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can remain within
the system and become

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available to other people.

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I can make this point clear by
showing how the system operates

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at this stage and demonstrate
the use of a program

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that they developed
just a few days ago.

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First thing I'm going to do
is to have the system print

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out the program that I
wrote a few days ago.

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For that purpose,
I simply type in.

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[TYPEWRITER RATTLING]

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Now the computer has just
typed out the program

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that I wrote a few days ago
exactly as I wrote it by typing

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at this teletypewriter.

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The next step is to
translate this program

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into the detailed
machine language

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that the computer understands.

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I will do this by just writing
the name of the language, which

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happens to be MAD, followed
by the name of the program,

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which I chose to be
my own name, Fano.

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At this point, the computer
is translating my program.

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The program has already
been translated,

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and the computer is typing back
some data about the program

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itself as it ended up to be.

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Now I can start
running this program

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and compute prime numbers.

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All I have to do is type in--

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[TYPEWRITER RATTLING]

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--the word "logo", and the
program will start operating.

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The computer is asking me what
range of prime numbers I want.

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I'm going to say the
range from 1 to 100.

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[TYPEWRITER RATTLING]

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Well, here they come.

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1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19,
23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53,

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59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83,
89, 97, and that's the end.

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[TYPEWRITER RATTLING]

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Now, this was a simple program
that I wrote a few days ago.

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It could have been a
long program written

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by me or by somebody else.

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In fact, I got a whole
library available to me

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literally at my fingertips.

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Now, there are
two more important

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points that I want to make.

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One is that while
I was working here,

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there were many other people
working simultaneously

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with the computer.

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At the present,
the maximum number

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of people that can
work simultaneously

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through a terminal
like this one is 24,

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but this number will
increase with time

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as we learn more and more how
to develop this particular mode

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of operation.

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I expect that within
a couple of years

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there will be hundreds of
people capable of working

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simultaneously at
their own terminals

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with the same computer.

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Now, of course we are
just beginning in this.

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It is a long road to
develop a system which

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is practical for
everybody to use,

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and there are many problems that
were involved as the same thing

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as after Bell invented
the telephone.

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It took a work of great
many people for many years

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before we got to the present
state in which you or I can

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dial long distance
all over the place.

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The same thing as
after the invention

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of electric generators.

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It took many years before
electricity was available

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in the average home and in
every office and factory.