The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-04-18


an articl ecalled Edwin c. Hill
Thinking Machines" by George
w. Gray, in the March Harpers.
Concurrently, DR.. Edwin j. Cohn
Of Harvard discovers an elaborate
network of power systems, with
dynamos and transmission lines in
the human body. Science presses
on in it's puSh-button theory Of
life. It has made all sorts of iron
monsters. But it will be a long
time before the slug over this
piece becomes THE Mechanical
Side Of the News"
The trouble is that a real me-
chanical man would be too big and
too expensive for any use, proba-
bly, just q big palooka, knocked
out by a gnat in his photo electric
gizzard.
What would it take to repro
duce the whole behavior of man
of an average, typical, Ordi.
nary man in the street," asks
MIR. Gray. "On the same scale
that of the rat robot as big as
the CapitOl) such machine
might occupy a whole city or
spread over an entire State, so ,
intricate and almost infinite in
number are the cross cOnnec-
lions, the associations, repre-
scented by ordinary human be-
hayiOr."
POSSIBILITIES
It is interesting to note that
Mr.. Gray stakes out the modest
task of making merely the man
in the street." It is terrifying 70
think what the job would be, and
the space requirements, if they
tried to set up a brain truster. At
the end of his piece, Mr.. Gray
quotes DR.. Cyrus Adler, as follows:
"'Tf the mechaniStic theory
were carried to the extreme and
there were produced, as 1 under
stand there can be produced in
the laboratory, robot that
could in every way duplicate the
acts of what we call man, it has
been suggested, and regret that
/ cannot take credit for this Sug.
eestiOn, that the acid test as to
the identicalneSS of the real man
and the mechaniStic man Is
whether the latter would ever
engage in the search for truth"
It will be exciting and no roubt
confusing when the rulers OF the
world decide to go into the con-
veyor belt production OF mechan'
ical men. Certain dictatorS al
ready have gone long way In
this direction.
Plastic young minds by the mil
lion in the countries of the new
cooperative states have been con-
ditioned to unerriI1g and predicta-
BILE responses to a world Of com.
mand, the visual stimulus Of q
banner or an emblem. This isn't
altogether just an analogue" Dor
rowing Mr.. Gray's word, or some
thing in the realm of fantasy.
The psychological behavoristS
and the bio-chemiStS are working
together in the new domain OF the
"psychico chemical" It is they
who are blue printing the robots.
Science already has built some
what of a Frankenstein'S mon
ster in it's runaway technology.
The dictatorS fitch from science.
Their absolutist state is a deriva-
tive of the sequence of an original
impulse and a practicable cause
and effect chained to a given OBJ ,
jective.
FACTIONS
The word indictments Of Fascist
Europe and Communist Russia are
as definitely push-button stimuli
as were the spoken words which
made that famous mechanical
man perform for the Engineering
Society in New York two or three
years ago. In Japan dangerous
thoughts" were ferreted out and
punished.
Each dictator, when the whole
world gets that way, no doubt, will
want to make the 1910 model in
his own image. At least one Of
them will insist on making the
commutator brush serve for q
moustache.
Anthony Eden and Adolf Hitler
probably will have a hard time get
ting together at Geneva, with the
latter no doubt represented by Won
Ribbentrop.
Eden will be for some internal
unilateral arrangement which will
allow for a Self-starter and a de-
gree of autonomy. Won Ribben-
trop will be all for remote push"
button control.
Naturally the militarists and the
pacifists can't hope to agree on
the specifications.
There will be a faction insist
ing on gearing the machine to a
3O-hour week, so it can be kept
working. There will, Of course.
be some troublesome poets want
ing to work in some extras which
even the psychico chemists can't
understand. There will even be
those who urge a mechanical
ukulele player, under a Klieg- ngns
moon.
DR.. Adler deserves the last word
when he asks whether they could
make their mechanical man zen.
gage in a search after truth"
That lets in democracy, too, in
any recaSting of mankind, me-
chanical or biological.
Copyright, 1895. by King Features Is
] Syndicate. Inc.) 4