The Machine That Changed the World

I watched all five episodes of 'the machine that changed the world' originally produced in 1991. The first three episodes are like a history lesson taking you through the history of computing from Charles Babbage, through Difference Engines and COLOSSUS all in episode one which is then followed up by what was occuring in the 1940s and 50s with computers being used for the 1952 elections and the creation of the movie 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. I was also unaware of the contributions of Atanasoff and how he was credited with the invention of the modern computer. I was interested in seeing more about computers and space that did not get alot of air time on episode two. In episode three, the paperback computer I got to see how the mouse was devised and was very interested in how they covered Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Later there was a segment on Sesame Street and how they covered computing, very interesting. I did not understand a lot about the chained computer theories or the illusions portion of the show. In episode 4 the show kind of went backward to the 50s-70s to discuss AI and how scientists and computer engineers have been working for decades to make a 'smart' computer that can think and learn for itself based off of mistakes and not preprogrammed responses. ELIZA was a project by Weizembaum and SHRDLU by Windograd that looked at AI. The self-driven vehicle seems like a possibility now with the pilotless airplanes that are being developed by the Navy. In the final episode the rapid development of computers was discussed as well as how print material was now being put on CDs - 450 books on one CD. The digital world is being substituted in for the analog one and global communications are more broad and well defined.
I felt that this series was interesting and informative but not that topical as in the past twenty years the advent of the internet has superceded many of these topics and it is not even forseen in this movie series. I also think that a series about computing and the digital age should be easier to find and download for educational purposes.