The Silent Duel: David Blackwell and the Math Inside AI

America on Hold: How the Internet Arrived

She was a copywriter turned marketer who watched focus groups attempt to use computers. She knew the internet wasn't a product you could sell. You needed to give people a way in. Her name was Jan Brandt, and she decided to mail it to them. In this episode * Jan Brandt: The architect of America Online's carpet bombing strategy that put a billion discs in American hands * Omaha Steaks, airlines, and grocery stores: how the discs became inescapable * A 150-pound throne and a museum case: What happened to the AOL discs that didn't go in the trash * The digital divide: The people who got left behind Episode Music * James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] * There's Garbage in the Mariana Trench [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2025/3/14/theres-garbage-in-the-mariana-trench?rq=garbage] * Morality Centre [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2019/11/26/morality-centre?rq=Morality%20Centre] * Hemiteleia [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2017/8/6/hemiteleia?rq=Hemiteleia] * Where There is No Darkness [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2017/4/14/where-there-is-no-darkness?rq=Where%20There%20is%20No%20Darkness] Additional Reading McCullough, B. (2014, August). She gave the world a billion AOL CDs: An interview with marketing legend Jan Brandt [Podcast episode]. Internet History Podcast. https://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2014/08/she-gave-the-world-a-billion-aol-cds-an-interview-with-marketing-legend-jan-brandt/ [https://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2014/08/she-gave-the-world-a-billion-aol-cds-an-interview-with-marketing-legend-jan-brandt/] National Telecommunications and Information Administration. (n.d.). Data Central. U.S. Department of Commerce. https://www.ntia.gov/topics/data-central [https://www.ntia.gov/topics/data-central] Ramo, J. C. (1997, September 22). How AOL lost the battles but won the war. Time. https://time.com/archive/6731455/how-aol-lost-the-battles-but-won-the-war/ [https://time.com/archive/6731455/how-aol-lost-the-battles-but-won-the-war/] Smithsonian Institution. (n.d.). America Online (AOL) disc [Object record, NMAH catalog no. 2010.3015.05]. National Museum of American History. https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1395721 [https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1395721]  Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/loreinthemachine] Found in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin [https://dainabouquin.com/], each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1879625858] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6uynqSYhuncCaMYvHvlS8D?si=rWV94P1kR6afZAjTpGiZ5A]. You can also sign up to receive Notes from the Machine [https://notes.foundinthemachine.com/#/portal] with each episode. You can support the show and independent booksellers by purchasing from the show's bookshop at bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine [https://bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine].

The Weavers: Memory and the Moon

In 1965, engineers were building a computer to fly men to the moon. It had to survive a rocket launch and the vacuum of space. It could not be erased by a power failure, a hard landing, or anything short of physical destruction. They needed to make the code permanent. They needed to weave it. In this episode * Hilda Carpenter - MIT technician who assembled the first magnetic-core memory plane * The Raytheon weavers - Textile workers and watchmakers recruited to encode Apollo's computer * The Fairchild Semiconductor plant - Where Navajo women built integrated circuits so men could walk on the moon Episode Music * James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] * "Those 2 Saints [https://www.nihilore.com/piano/#itemId=57f78d08197aeab10fb6fe6b]" * "Evening Drum [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2016/10/21/evening-drum?rq=Evening%20drum]" * "No History Should Be Silenced [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2024/3/31/no-history-should-be-silenced?rq=No%20History%20Should%20Be%20Silenced]" * "Behind the Mask [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2018/8/25/behind-the-mask?rq=Behind%20the%20Mask]" Additional Reading CuriousMarc. (2019). Core memory explained and demonstrated [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/AwsInQLmjXc [https://youtu.be/AwsInQLmjXc] Nakamura, L. (2014). Indigenous circuits. Computer History Museum. https://computerhistory.org/blog/indigenous-circuits/ [https://computerhistory.org/blog/indigenous-circuits/] Rankin, J. L. (2022, February 18). Core memory weavers and Navajo women made the Apollo missions possible. Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/core-memory-weavers-navajo-apollo-raytheon-computer-nasa [https://www.sciencenews.org/article/core-memory-weavers-navajo-apollo-raytheon-computer-nasa] Shirriff, K. (2019). Software woven into wire. Ken Shirriff's Blog. https://www.righto.com/2019/07/software-woven-into-wire-core-rope-and.html [https://www.righto.com/2019/07/software-woven-into-wire-core-rope-and.html] Stark, L. (2018). Hilda wove all those wires [Zine]. https://www.liza-stark.com/projects/zines/hilda.html [https://www.liza-stark.com/projects/zines/hilda.html] Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (2017). "Hear my voice" artist profile: D.Y. Begay [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9wmz5rf1NU [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9wmz5rf1NU] Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/loreinthemachine] Found in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin [https://dainabouquin.com/], each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1879625858] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6uynqSYhuncCaMYvHvlS8D?si=rWV94P1kR6afZAjTpGiZ5A]. You can also sign up to receive Notes from the Machine [https://notes.foundinthemachine.com/#/portal] with each episode. You can support the show and independent booksellers by purchasing from the show's bookshop at bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine [https://bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine].

Found

The show has a new name.  Starting with this episode, Lore in the Machine is now Found in the Machine. Same stories, same voice. The name just finally says what the show actually does.  If you're subscribed, your feed will keep updating automatically. If you want to share the show with someone new, the new home is foundinthemachine.com [https://foundinthemachine.com/]. Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/loreinthemachine] Found in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin [https://dainabouquin.com/], each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1879625858] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6uynqSYhuncCaMYvHvlS8D?si=rWV94P1kR6afZAjTpGiZ5A]. You can also sign up to receive Notes from the Machine [https://notes.foundinthemachine.com/#/portal] with each episode. You can support the show and independent booksellers by purchasing from the show's bookshop at bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine [https://bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine].

I’m Not a Robot: The Internet's Human Test

Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode.   You’ve done this so many times you don’t think about it anymore. A box appears. You squint at some blurry letters, type them out, check the box. It takes about ten seconds. You probably didn’t know that those ten seconds were going somewhere. For years, millions of people solving these security tests were quietly doing something else entirely. They were rescuing forgotten history that computers couldn’t read. In 1950, Alan Turing proposed a test where machines tried to pass as human. Half a century later, a graduate student inverted it. The machine would do the judging. And the humans would get to work. In this episode * Turing's imitation game - the thought experiment that set the terms for AI * Luis von Ahn and Manuel Blum - the Carnegie Mellon graduate student and his professor who built the wall between humans and bots * reCAPTCHA - the internet security test that became the largest digitization project in history * reCAPTCHA v3 - the invisible version Episode Music * James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] * "Whispers Invoke Paranoia [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2016/10/19/whispers-invoke-paranoia?rq=Whispers%20Invoke%20Paranoia]" * "Do Not Look Back [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2017/4/1/do-not-look-back?rq=do%20not%20look%20back]" * "Artifice [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2017/4/7/artifice?rq=Artifice]" Additional Reading Pandey, K. (2022, July 25). History & evolution of CAPTCHA. Masai School. https://www.masaischool.com/blog/history-evolution-of-captcha/ [https://www.masaischool.com/blog/history-evolution-of-captcha/] Gugliotta, G. (2011, March 29). Deciphering Old Texts, One Woozy, Curvy Word at a Time. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/science/29recaptcha.html [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/science/29recaptcha.html] Weintraub, S. (2009, September). Google acquires reCAPTCHA in two-for-one deal. Computerworld. https://www.computerworld.com/article/1331965/google-acquires-recaptcha-in-two-for-one-deal.html [https://www.computerworld.com/article/1331965/google-acquires-recaptcha-in-two-for-one-deal.html] Schwab, K. (2019, June 27). Google's new reCAPTCHA has a dark side. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90369697/googles-new-recaptcha-has-a-dark-side [https://www.fastcompany.com/90369697/googles-new-recaptcha-has-a-dark-side] Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/loreinthemachine] Found in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin [https://dainabouquin.com/], each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1879625858] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6uynqSYhuncCaMYvHvlS8D?si=rWV94P1kR6afZAjTpGiZ5A]. You can also sign up to receive Notes from the Machine [https://notes.foundinthemachine.com/#/portal] with each episode. You can support the show and independent booksellers by purchasing from the show's bookshop at bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine [https://bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine].

The Silent Duel: David Blackwell and the Math Inside AI

Listeners, please note that this episode was recorded before the show’s name changed to Found in the Machine, so you’ll hear the old name in this episode.  Two people walk toward each other on a dirt road. One bullet each. In a normal duel, a missed shot makes a sound. But in a silent duel, a miss would be invisible. You wouldn't know if your opponent was holding their fire, or had already taken their one shot. How would you know when to stop walking and take your own? In 2024, NVIDIA named the most powerful piece of AI hardware ever built after the man who spent his career thinking about this exact problem. His name was David Blackwell. In this episode * David Blackwell: brilliant professor and researcher at the RAND Corporation. Seventh African American to earn a PhD in mathematics. * Kriegsspiel: the blind chess variant that Blackwell played daily. * Blackwell's silent duel: a thought experiment from Cold War-era game theory, and why related math ended up in machine learning textbooks. * The economist's question: the most important question in the world at that moment, asked in good faith, and why every mathematician Blackwell knew gave the same useless answer. Episode Music * James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] * "Anti-Nostalgia [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2024/9/13/anti-nostalgia?rq=Anti-Nostalgia]" * "Who Are You At War With Now? [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2021/10/21/who-are-you-at-war-with-now?rq=Who%20Are%20You%20At%20War%20With%20Now%3F]" * "Alter Ego [https://www.nihilore.com/latest-tracks/2024/10/11/alter-ego?rq=Alter%20Ego]" Additional Reading AYE Conference. (n.d.). Activity sheet 1: David Blackwell and the theory of duels [PDF]. https://www.ayeconference.com/Articles/gameTheory.pdf [https://www.ayeconference.com/Articles/gameTheory.pdf] Black, R. (2019). David Blackwell and the deadliest duel. Royal Fireworks Press. Blackwell, D. (2003). An oral history with David Blackwell [Oral history transcript; conducted by N. Wilmot, 2002–2003]. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.tufts.edu/dist/8/3572/files/2015/11/blackwell.pdf [https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.tufts.edu/dist/8/3572/files/2015/11/blackwell.pdf] NVIDIA. (2024). NVIDIA Blackwell architecture. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/technologies/blackwell-architecture/ [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/technologies/blackwell-architecture/] -- Support the show [https://buymeacoffee.com/loreinthemachine] Found in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin [https://dainabouquin.com/], each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1879625858] or Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6uynqSYhuncCaMYvHvlS8D?si=rWV94P1kR6afZAjTpGiZ5A]. You can also sign up to receive Notes from the Machine [https://notes.foundinthemachine.com/#/portal] with each episode. You can support the show and independent booksellers by purchasing from the show's bookshop at bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine [https://bookshop.org/shop/foundinthemachine].