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The ka-chunka-ka-chunka sound is the sound of an ASR-33 teletype. The contraption always sounded like it was going to tear itself apart and throw pieces around the room.

For years and years and YEARS Hollywood used that sound whenever a glass tty showed text.




Sometimes the input device shown is a standard IBM Selectric typewriter. Not even the computer interface version, which is bulkier, just the plain typewriter. Many of the lamp panels are from IBM 1620s. The black glass panels are from CDC machines. The disk drive in the intro is a 5MB (!) IBM RAMAC.

But the antique hardware is not the point. This movie shows a machine rapidly improving itself to human level intelligence and going on from there. That's the "Singularity". That had not been seen before in mainstream entertainment. (Yes, there are some obscure SF stories, such as "Answer" by Fredrick Brown (1950), but they didn't really develop the concept.)

We may be getting close to that point now. I don't know. Suddenly AI is advancing a lot faster than it used to. Machines are showing unexpected capabilities. It's going to be interesting.


Sometimes I wonder though. I was playing with character.ai, and discussing something non-sexual, and I said naw, I don't like that.

It immediately got out a "paddle" and told me I was being bad.

I wonder, with how much of the internet is porn, if our biggest worry is being fucked to death by AI.


If that is a worry then you really don't want to get on the wrong side of the Culture GCU Grey Area.


> The ka-chunka-ka-chunka sound is the sound of an ASR-33 teletype.

I really love the cadenced hum when it idles. And, when it types, it's the purest sound of information.




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