Happy birthday, HAL; What went wrong?

Article Abstract:

HAL, an artificially intelligent computer, was portrayed in the motion picture '2001: A Space Odyssey,' Arthur C. Clarke's science-fiction story. In the movie, HAL malfunctions and becomes malevolent. The computer attempts to kill the astronauts on its spaceship. Aside from the possibility that such a machine might go wrong, since the time Clarke's movie appeared, people have argued whether such a machine - a machine that can speak, reason and do various things that seem to signify conscious intelligence - will ever actually be possible. Clarke himself says his only mistake was an inaccurate time scale. When '2001' was written, he says, researchers believed that intelligent machines were only 20 years away. The work needed, however, has proved unexpectedly difficult. Clarke still believes that an artificially intelligent machine is possible, but he says it would have been better to call his story '2101.'

Research, Forecasts and trends, Machine theory, Criticism and interpretation, Artificial intelligence, Cognitive science, 2001: A Space Odyssey (Motion picture), Clarke, Arthur C., Future Technologies

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Wrestling over the key to the codes

Article Abstract:

The Clinton Administration's proposed voice- and data encryption standard is being publicly opposed by such groups as the Cypherpunks, an alliance of expert programmers, and is triggering an interest in cryptography. Cypherpunks advocates absolute electronic privacy and has issued The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, an electronic pamphlet that calls for privacy without government interference. Cyptography is an esoteric field of mathematics that converts data into a form that can be read only by someone who has the decryption key. The Clinton Administration's proposed standard is intended as a compromise between groups such as Cypherpunks and the occasional need of national security agencies to monitor electronic communications. The system's basic technology, based on tamper-proof computer chips, will not be subject to testing by civilian computer experts.

Standards, Usage, Standard, Standardization, Security measures, Data security, Cryptography, Security Systems, Proposal, National Government, Critique

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