Evening star., 1950-10-18
Planes of Future to Use
EIectronic 'Bruins'
Humon's Reaction Time
Too Slow for Super Speed
By Thomas R. Henry

ny iHOiHuS n. IISHTy
Brains in boxes must replace the
human brain in air operations of the
future.
This is the conclusion of DR.. N. E.
Edlefson, associate technical director of
the aerophysics laboratory of North
American Aviation.
He is cited in the Air Forces Technical
Data Digest.
Operating speeds of today's military
aircraft" DR.. Edlefson says, "are making
the reaction time of the human body a
stumbling block in the path of progress"
At speeds of 500 miles an hour, he
declares, pilot recognizing an enemy
cannot react fast enough to fire his guns.
The answer, DR.. Edlefson believes, Is
brains in small boxes. These will be so
complicated electronically that test pan
els will have to be built into the planes.
With the press of a button, lights will
indicate whether the brain" is func-
tioning. This does not mean" he says,
that the day of push-button defense
has daWned, although we certainly are
at the threshold of new era in auto
matte control. Actually we are not as
close to push-button warfare as we were
leu W GIl0 OdyS OI
the last war. After several years of
working on the problems involved We
have clearer picture of what those
problems are"
The electronic brains now under con-
sideration, DR.. Edlefson explains, will
even keep planes from damaging them
selves during flight maneuvers by tell
ing the controls how to operate These
controls then will report back to the
brains that their orders have been car
ried out. The brains in boxes. he sug-
geSts, are becoming necessary because
the human brain has become fixed in
the reaction times developed over thou
sands of years and it is futile to expect
any material improvement.
X
For eight years nearly a million more
babies have been born in the United
States each year than the yearly average
during the seven years before the war
The phenomenal increase in the birth
rate during the war and postwar period
has produced about 3117 900 live births
annually, compared to an average of
2,276,000 for most of the preceding
decade.
At the same time the infant mortality
rate has declined each year for the past
IA years and now has reached a low of
about 80 per 900. This still is regarded
as far too high. Still, it is a decline of
more than 40 per cent since 1910 for
children between one and four years old.
There has been decline of 80 per cent
in the death rate of older children.
Each of the approximately IS million
babies born since the war can expect to
live, on the average, 67.2 years, accord
ing to the latest mortality figures for the
country.
AS was to be expected, the biggest
increase came Immediately after the war
and the high tide mark was reached in
1947. Still, the 1949 total was only about
3 per cent below that of the big year.
Naturally. there has been decline in
marriages since the flood that came with
the return of servicemen from overseas.
This leads to the conclusion that many
of the births now being recorded are
second and third births
For the first time in the history of the
country the number of registered live
births in 1916 exceeded million, an in
crease of $4,000 over the previous high
of 1943. This was an increase of about
8 per cent over the wartime peak.
The expectation of life, according to
Census Bureau figures, has increased at
every age. This is especially true, how
ever, for children. Since 1900 the death
rate between the first and fourth year
has decreased 81 per cent, compared to
20 per cent for those over rs.
During recent years, naturally. the de-
cline for all ages has been particularly
rapid due to the efficacy of chemicals
such as the Sulfa drugs and antibiotics
such as penicillin. These are reducing to
minimum the danger from infectious
diseases. This may be offset, however,
by rising rate for cancer, heart diseases
and blood-kidney diseases which attack
most frequently after middle age.
The greatest danger for infants now
is in the first day of life. The number Of
deaths at that time represents about a
third of all infant deaths.
Thus the present population trend is
summarized from Census reports by the
Quarterly Review of Pediatrics published
by the Washington Institute of Medicine.
There are far-reaching Implications the
Review indicates. for the school popula-
ton of the future and in the new trends
in medicine