The Robot of Invention, 1960

The idea of invention is important here, and also the notion of patenting an invention. It’s unclear who the owner of the new patent would be, the man, or his robot creation.1

Cartoon of two men in suits sitting next to a humanoid robot outside a Patents office
"I invented him and he invented that"

  1. Cartoon by Mischa Richter, Time, September 19, 1960 ↩︎

I am Account Number

Frustration with computers may be familiar to us now, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s it had already reached a new level.

The general public was aware that computers, or “mainframes,” were impacting their lives, but they had little recourse and no access to their own information within computerized systems. Which isn’t far removed from the present, actually, considering search engines, social media, and AI.

It’s interesting that the man wielding the sledgehammer doesn’t give his name – he’s simply a number in the eyes of the computer.1

A cartoon of a man upset about computers holding a sledgehammer
"I am Account No. 327-94-33AT, and I would like a word with your computer."

  1. Cartoon by Henry Martin, The New Yorker, November 11, 1970. Listed in The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, by Robert Mankoff and David Remnick, 2004. ↩︎

Shudder at "AI" in 1964

Many researchers shudder at the phrase “artificial intelligence.” Its anthropomorphic overtones, they say, often arouse irrelevant emotional responses – i.e., in people who think it sacrilegious to try to imitate the brain.1

Cartoon ofrobots enjoying a museum of human artifacts. Will the Computer Outwit Man? screenshot of magazine title.

  1. Gilbert Burck, “Will the Computer Outwit Man?”, The Boundless Age of the Computer, Part VI, Fortune, Vol. LXX, No. 4, October 1964. Quote in footnote on page 120. Cartoon on page 121 by Nicholas Solovioff. ↩︎