@macDougallKillerApp2014
Title: [@macDougallKillerApp2014] date: 2023-04-07 type: reference project: Memex3
tags:: Memex3, cold war, agency, control, power,
Reference¶
MacDougall, Robert. 2014. 'The Killer App: How the Cold War Created Video Games and Vice Versa' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_otw7hWq58A.
Summary & Key Take Aways¶
In his presentation, Robert MacDougall tries to look at the cold war throught the argument of Marshall McCluen about how we shape our tools and then our tools shape us. In this sense, MacDougall argues that "we shape our toys and then our toys shape us." Political, cultural, and social ideas get built into the tools and system we use, but once these choices are made, they become invisible to us. We forget how things could have been different, since the influence of those of choices were that significant. We cannot talk about computers without talking about Cold War, but we cannot not also talk about the Cold War without talking about computers. To talk about computers is to talk about the Cold War, vice versa. Using this conundrum, MacDougall looks at the relationship between Video Games and Cold War, and how one cannot be talked about without the other. At roughly the 20 minute mark, MacDougall states how famous quotes like Howard Aiken's and Thomas Watson's could not see how the mass could require a computer that could do thousands of calculations per second, and this was because they did not understand how technology was going to develop and what the computer would become. Once the applications and softwares came along, people could see how they could have these machines in their houses. Real-time human machine feedback loop were being imagined in the 50s; this loop would later be exemplified with video games. MacDougall explores the idea of social science and how Cold War planners believed it was something you could scientifically build a model; building a game model! The results of those simulations were something becoming so real that it threatened officers, bending reality and resulting in real costs in blood and lives. So in that sense, after shaping the toys, the toys shaped back the human using them during Cold War which caused a cascade of problems.
How does it relate to class?¶
MacDougall's talk offers a compelling argument about the power of the computer, but also about the Agency embedded in the creation of these tools, and how it shapes back the user. The talk also links about the idea of Competences and social neccessities which was the Cold War and the fear of Nuclear war with the need of simulating a post-war world. It goes to show the interconnectedness of modern computers and the Cold War, and the complex intricacies of its development. The talk also highlights a recurring theme of technological power (Politics_of_power) and the dependency of it. It also links back to Network_engineer, as these computers were specifically engineered with contextual intentions, which were then reflected on the users.