There was a whole lot of interesting and important computer work done in the 60's, but there was way larger stuff that went down. The moon race, 'Nam, decolonization, the Cold War, unrest in Europe (Paris, Prague Spring), Civil Rights, ... I'm sure I missed stuff. If the computer stuff "went wrong", things would have been delayed but people would have created things eventually. Maybe we'd all be using Algol.
If the other areas "went wrong", more wrong than some of them did, a whole lot of people would have died. We might be looking at a recovery similar to what followed WW I w/o the roaring 20's. Worst case, we'd have tested Sagan's models.
Much of the 20th century was a hot mess. I'm very disappointed that more people don't know this and wish to recreate it in the 21st century. Not a positive commentary on human nature I guess.
There was a whole lot of interesting and important computer work done in the 60's, but there was way larger stuff that went down. The moon race, 'Nam, decolonization, the Cold War, unrest in Europe (Paris, Prague Spring), Civil Rights, ... I'm sure I missed stuff. If the computer stuff "went wrong", things would have been delayed but people would have created things eventually. Maybe we'd all be using Algol.
If the other areas "went wrong", more wrong than some of them did, a whole lot of people would have died. We might be looking at a recovery similar to what followed WW I w/o the roaring 20's. Worst case, we'd have tested Sagan's models.
Much of the 20th century was a hot mess. I'm very disappointed that more people don't know this and wish to recreate it in the 21st century. Not a positive commentary on human nature I guess.