The second season of Cut Pathways, the oral history podcast from the Carnegie Mellon University Oral History Program, dives into the influential history of computer science at CMU. In a six-episode series, titled “The Wild West of Computing,” hosts Katherine Barbera and David Bernabo along with guests historian Andrew Meade McGee and Curator of Special Collections Sam Lemley show how the culture surrounding computer science significantly altered the reputation of the school from 1956 to 1987.
In this episode, author Pamela McCorduck discusses her research in artificial intelligence in the 1970s. Pamela tells stories about her friendships with Herb Simon and Allen Newell, her book Machines Who Think, and a secretive group called the Squirrel Hill Sages. Sam Lemley joins us to talk about the Traub-McCorduck Collection—50 calculating machines, letters and books—housed at the CMU Libraries.
Special Episode: Futures of Artificial Intelligence
S3E7: Steel City Outsiders and the Institutional Avant-Garde | “The Year Punk Broke (in Pittsburgh)”
S3E6: Steel City Outsiders and the Institutional Avant-Garde | “Video Art, Film Posters, and the Travel Sheet”
S3E5: Steel City Outsiders and the Institutional Avant-Garde | “Entertaining the Subconscious”
S3E4: Steel City Outsiders and the Institutional Avant-Garde | “A New New Music”
S3E3: Steel City Outsiders and the Institutional Avant-Garde | ”The Selma Burke Art Center”
S3E2: Steel City Outsiders and the Institutional Avant-Garde | “Act of Seeing: A New Day for Cinema in Pittsburgh”
S3E1: Steel City Outsiders and the Institutional Avant-Garde | “A Museum Shouldn’t Be a Graveyard”
S3 Trailer: Steel City Outsiders and the Institutional Avant-Garde
S2E7: The Wild West of Computing LIVE!
S2E6: An End to the Wild West of Computing
S2E5: How DARPA Sees It: An interview with Clint Kelly
S2E3: The Wild West of Computing | Part 3: Building Culture from Crisis
S2E2: The Wild West of Computing | Part 2: Funding an Institution
S2E1: The Wild West of Computing | Part 1: A Byte-Size History of Computing
S1E3: Julia Parsons, the Codebreaker
S1E2: Origin Story: The Activities Board
S1E1: First Impressions of Pittsburgh
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