This syntax study not only leads to better understanding of language, but is a necessary forerunner of computer language translations.
Instant Data
Another of the new ventures is the processing of experimental data while the experiment is still in progress. This is being tried on a high energy physics experiment at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator. Each of four CEA scientists has a small computer in his laboratory a little way up Oxford St., and these are tied in with the IBM 360/50 at the Center. The small machines gather data from the experiment, and pass it on to the larger computer where it is processed. The results are instantaneously fed back to the small machines to be displayed to the scientists.
In this way, the scientists can decide quickly whether things are running smoothly, and whether the experiment should be continued. Under ordinary condition, data cannot be sifted until weeks after the experiment. After all is done, the scientists may find that something went awry at the outset, and everything afterwards should have been altered to compensate. This project will be attempted in May.
All this research requires money--but it is not hard to obtain research funds. There is, on the other hand, a severe shortage of grants for instructional use of computers. "Our toughest problem," says Oettinger, "is getting computers to undergraduates." Research money cannot be channeled to this goal.
The computer is so penetrating all fields, however, that the Center feels it has a responsibility to expose the students to its technology. In the near future, Oettinger predicts, "Any student who wants to do anything will feel naked without his computer."
A new Gen Ed course may be the answer. Harvey Brooks, Dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics, said that such a lower-level course is now under consideration. Eng Sci 10, an experimental computer course for the uninitiated which was dropped this year, failed, according to Brooks, because of the varying mathematical backgrounds of the students.
The Gen Ed course says Oettinger, could avoid math completely. "Today, you need not know any math to operate a computer, unless you wish to use it to crack mathematical questions."
As more and more students study the rudiments of computer use, more computer time will have to be made available to them. This problem may be alleviated by the consoles which the Center has been trying out this year.
The console is a diminutive, innocent-looking machine with a typewriter keyboard. One such console is hooked up to a central computer in Santa Barbara, and has a display panel which can project curves and equations onto a screen--an animated blackboard. It can be used to solve some fairly sophisticated problems in applied mathematics and physics.
Console Goal
There are two such consoles now. Next year there will be 30. A coaxial cable system is planned which will permit a console to be placed anywhere in the University. "A console in every entry" is our goal, Oettinger grins.
The burgeoning use of computers by non-scientists is the result of a phenomenon known as "transparency." A tool is transparent if the user is aware of the problem he is trying to solve, not of the mechanics of the operation. When you write, for example, you don't worry about the way the paper was made or how your pen works (unless it runs out of ink). When you make a phone call, you are hardly conscious of the complex path followed by the electrical impulses. Only if the line is busy do you appreciate the vehicle of communication.
Computers are becoming more transparent. Social scientists, therefore, are using them more and they are even starting to invade the humanities. The ideal transparency, still a long way off, will make computers as convenient as telephones or pens.
"Ten years ago," Oettinger points out," "the computer was a toy for the user, restricted to those who loved the beast; but not now." Ten years from now there might be one in every House. Ten years after that, there might be one in every house.