Smithsonian Magazine

Why the Computer Scientist Behind the World’s First Chatbot Dedicated His Life to Publicizing the Threat Posed by A.I.

Joseph Weizenbaum realized that programs like his Eliza chatbot could "induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal ...
Drexel University

40 Years Ago, Drexel Made Computer — and Apple — History

“The freshmen now entering Drexel [in the early 1980s] will spend the greater portion of their professional lives in the 21st century, in an environment in which the computer will be an everyday, even ...
The New Yorker

The Birth of the Personal Computer

In 1979, two M.I.T. computer-science alumni and a Harvard Business School graduate launched a new piece of computer software for the Apple II machine, an early home computer. Called VisiCalc, short ...
Wired

Back to BASIC—the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing

I was entering the miseries of seventh grade in the fall of 1980 when a friend dragged me into a dimly lit second-floor room. The school had recently installed a newfangled Commodore PET computer, a ...
Cult of Mac

Evolution of the Mac: 40 years of innovation

The 40-year history of Macintosh computers is a roller coaster of ages golden and dark. Anything that lasts so long in the forefront of technology has to change to stay relevant. This once-plucky ...