Cassette Futurism

🧠 Neuromorph Mankind enters the age of artificial intellect

1975: Soviet cyberneticist Lana Levitsky designs the world’s first neuromorphic circuit, a true artificial intelligence that crudely imitates the design of a living brain.

SLAVA is finalized and replicated several times, with variations being employed for calculating mission trajectories, code-breaking, and economic planning. Its ability to learn and make decisions is unmatched by any typical computer, although the system seems to settle into a pattern with time.

Within a few years, the neuromorphic circuit is reproduced across the world. In the West, GERTRUDE beeps to life just in time to join the Space Race, roaring off to Mars and Venus. The world had not known yet, but cybernetic life was about to change the system forever.

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Now it is time for some TERMINOLOGY…

* NEUROMORPH Cybernetic being inspired by design of a biological mind. Consists of number of components and systems working in tandem to create a living system.

* NEUROMORPHIC CIRCUIT or CORE Device that contains mind of NEUROMORPH, not including extraneous systems. Analogous to biological brain. Often spherical.

* HEURISTIC WORKER Primary component of NEUROMORPH that responds to input, traverses links, and organizes data within other portions of the system.

* HARD MODULE Hard-coded block which provides baseline skills, rulesets, and memories for NEUROMORPH. Each NEUROMORPH has a number of HARD MODULES, and a HEURISTIC WORKER cannot manipulate the contents of a HARD MODULE.

* DEEP MEMORY Enormous storage banks to which HEURISTIC WORKER reads and writes. Besides storing all kinds of information, this system also stores LINKS.

* LINK Pointer between memories, skills, and whatever else is stored in DEEP MEMORY and HARD MODULES. Critical to learning and decision-making aspects of a NEUROMORPH.

* VIRTUAL MODULE Block made entirely from LINKS pointing to other LINKS which develops over an enormous amount of time and experience. One theory suggests that VIRTUAL MODULES naturally “fill in the gap” for missing systems that would otherwise be present in a biological brain. VIRTUAL MODULES can bypass logic in HARD MODULES.

* MANIFEST CONSCIOUSNESS Theoretically, consciousness may be correlated with higher levels of interconnectivity within a system. VIRTUAL MODULES appear to confirm the theory, although whether NEUROMORPHS are truly conscious has always been a core point of political contention.

* AUTOMATIC Chassis controlled and operated by a NEUROMORPH, often self-propelled. Interchangeable with robot or automaton.

* MASTERMIND High-intellect AUTOMATIC designed to understand and interact with complex systems. Assists in micromanagement, optimization, and generally assisting human operators in decision-making. Often wired directly into computer networks and permitted to directly control complicated systems.

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The Akai VT 100 was a black and white portable video system which used ﾼ" tape. Introduced around 1969, the machine could record video using normal audio tape, although the quality was improved when using the Akai's special quarter-inch videotape.

Model VTS-100S is superbly engineered with convenient control panel, Still Button, Index Counter and Automatic Shut-Off. Model VTS-110DX adds off-the-air recording capability and sound dubbing.

Akai VTR systems are truly portable. Zoom lens camera with built-in microphone, recorder and attached 3" TV monitor weigh less than 20 lbs. Record and playback up to 30 minutes on a single 5" reel of inexpensive and reusable ﾼ" tape. Battery or AC operated. Optional RF converter permits playback on any TV set.

A Datanet advertisement for a specialty microcomputer from the early 2020s

With the cybernetic revolution raging across the world, other digital technologies evolved to support it rather than forming an identity of their own. Given that cybernetics was expected to eventually replace all human-computer interaction, investment into other methods was rare.

By the 2020s, the Datanet existed but primarily for the machine and its programmer. Gigastreams flowed from node to node, carrying terabytes of data between mainframes, robots, and microcomputers. The signals they carried formed the unconscious backbone of society, underground and mostly out of sight.

Between the gigastreams, there existed a space for the human users. The vast majority would be using specialized applications to access electronic conferences, entertainment downloads, interactive encyclopedias, and similar use cases.

The few that ventured further into the machine-facing cyberspace were specialists: cyberneticists, programmers, tinkerers, digital archeologists. It wouldn’t be until the first teleindexer — the PAL, from Maple Cybernetic — that the Datanet would be placed into the human palm, fundamentally changing daily life one more time.