If you can look into the seeds of time
[ by Charles Cameron — intelligence, games, and Intelligence ]
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I snagged both these graphics — different as they are — from the PAXsims announcement that the Defense GameTech 2012 conference is now open for registration, because I thought between them they neatly posed a question I wonder quite a bit about.
How much intelligence is in the tech, and how much in the focused mind?
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Consider the selection of Bletchley analysts who were tasked with cracking the Enigma code:
The cryptanalysts were continually forced to innovate, to redesign and refine the bombes, and to devise wholly new strategies. Part of the reason for their success was the bizarre combination of mathematicians, scientists, linguists, classicists, chess grandmasters and crossword addicts within each hut. An intractable problem would be passed around the hut until it reached someone who had the right mental tools to solve it…
Simon Singh, The code book: the science of secrecy from ancient Egypt to quantum cryptography
How to calibrate the analytical reach of a single mind, the group reach of a well-chosen assortment of minds?
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Banquo:
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3
December 2nd, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Not least the less celebrated assorted team of electrical engineers from the Post Office Research Department who designed & built the world’s first functioning electronic computers using valves. And then later destroyed and remained silent about their achievement
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Flowers
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/8837249/Gil-Hayward.html