Spam in a can, man – or the acme of cybernetics
When pretending to be pilots in the Rambler or Pontiac as kids, and enacting Flash Gordon style heroic epics, the plot could always move along faster on at least one level if we would ‘set the controls on autopilot.’ We could riff on a higher philosophical plain, before one of us would take the wheel again and buffet through the asteroids.
The autopilot predates and still stands perhaps as the acme of cybernetics. In reviewing some sparse notes I gather that it came to be in WWII, the result of work by Sperry on gyroscopes, and Honeywell , extensions of its control system work on thermostats.
The autopilot was pretty well established by the time Nasa came into being and started to pursue manned space travel. But this cybernetic demon becomes a nemesis in the hands of Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff, one of the best ever epics on technology. Nasa’s program was juxtaposed versus the X-15 program; true pilots were juxtaposed versus Nasa human guinea pigs. The later in Wolfe’s phraseology became ‘spam in a can.’
The X-15 argument was that autopilots could be taken to an extreme – when chimps could be pilots, or pilots had no more to do than be probed as chimps, true flying was dead. As we look out in fighter pilot technology, the general feeling is that this next-gen of planes will be the last directly piloted by humans. [This week, Nek Muhammad, one of Pakistan’s most-wanted militants, was either gunned down by a drone, or setup by a drone to be gunned down by a missile.]
The issues raise appear again, just this week, concerning Formula One racing.
From Wolfe’s The Right Stuff:
He notes that as Project mercury was a scientific enterprise, scientists and engineers outranked the heroic test subjects. He paints the picture of cybernetics as adversary.
“Engineers were ... devising systems for guiding rockets into space, through the use of computers built into the engines and connected to accelerometers for monitoring the temperature, pressure, oxygen supply, and other vital conditions of the Mercury capsule and for triggering safety procedures automatically -- meaning they were creating with computers, systems in which machines could communicate with one another, make decisions, take action, all with tremendous speed and accuracy ...
Oh, genius engineers! “
The engineer in Wolfe’s depiction can be as manfully robust as the astronaut, kicking back some Virginia A.B.C. store bourbon and ‘letting his ego out for a little romp, like a growling red dog.” – P.150 Bantam Books Edition
tbc ...
For more of this
Unrelated
Ex-Fighter for Taliban Dies in Strike - NYT, June 19, 2004
Computers chase checked flag - NYT, June 17, 2004
On scientific discipline - AmSci, Jul 2004
Xilinx's founder Bernard Vonderschmitt dead at 80 - EETimes, Jun 14, 2004
Last year this month on this web site
Bolly Bolger
http://radio.weblogs.com/0115044/stories/2003/06/23/bollyBolgerHailFellowWellMet.html -Jun 23, 2004
http://radio.weblogs.com/0115044/categories/myHobbies/2003/06/23.html
The Education of Henry Dynamo http://radio.weblogs.com/0115044/stories/2003/06/14/educationOfHenryDynamo.html -Jun 14, 2004
http://radio.weblogs.com/0115044/categories/myHobbies/2003/06/14.html
Nothing but the wheel Jun 7 http://radio.weblogs.com/0115044/stories/2003/06/07/nothingButTheWheel.html -Jun 17. 2004
http://radio.weblogs.com/0115044/categories/myHobbies/2003/06/07.html
8:32:28 PM 
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