
50 Years Ago: The World in 1962  - wglb
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/05/50-years-ago-the-world-in-1962/100296/
======
kens
The briefcase-sized computer with dials that Mauchly is carrying around is
interesting. It's an analog computer for solving scheduling and flow problems,
i.e. finding the critical path. The arrows show dependencies, and you turn a
knob to set how long a task takes. The computer computes the critical path and
the float (slack) time. It's implemented as a corresponding network of
voltages sources and diodes, where the voltage at a point indicates time. A
plotter creates a time graph as output. The computer is programmed through a
plugboard and cables.

This is described in patent 3250902, which is actually pretty clearly written.

~~~
DanBC
Now that we have powerful electronics simulation I'd be interested to see the
results of genetic algorithms designing various analogue computers.

~~~
unlogic
You can search for automatically created analog curcuits here:
<http://www.genetic-programming.com/humancompetitive.html>

There are also examples and explanations in John Koza's "Genetic Programming"
series of books.

------
didgeoridoo
50 years ago in Afghanistan it was 1962.

Today it is 1262.

Sort of makes you realize that peace, freedom and technological advancement
aren't defaults, but aberrations. I can't imagine what it would feel like to
be an Afghan citizen who was born in Kabul in the 1940s... It must feel like
being stuck in a time machine.

~~~
andyjohnson0
Interesting photos of life in Kabul in the sixties.

[http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a...](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=full)

Quote: "A half-century ago, Afghan women pursued careers in medicine; men and
women mingled casually at movie theaters and university campuses in Kabul;
factories in the suburbs churned out textiles and other goods. There was a
tradition of law and order, and a government capable of undertaking large
national infrastructure projects, like building hydropower stations and roads,
albeit with outside help. Ordinary people had a sense of hope, a belief that
education could open opportunities for all, a conviction that a bright future
lay ahead. All that has been destroyed by three decades of war, but it was
real."

~~~
guard-of-terra
By three decades of war and Islam.

The sad thing is, I don't see Islamic countries evolve much. They seem to have
no drive to get better unless they have oil and are lucky at the same time.

~~~
kamaal
>>By three decades of war and Islam.

War, I agree. Unnecessary remark on Islam!

But there are no statistics to indicate that Islam propagates backwardness.
Fundamentalism in any religion, may be. But to say a particular religion
propagates backwardness is not a right remark.

Islamic scholars have contributed a lot back to the world. Infact corner stone
of computer science Algorithm is named after a Arabic scholar of Islamic
faith.

Your point comes across as a tell tale sign of Islamophobia in the west to
perceive every other muslim as a backward moron from the stonage waiting to
blow up the whole world.

While the fact is muslims are like any other people in the world.

For a change you must look into your own backyard and question who started
those wars. Is it the mistake of the Afghans that soviets invaded them? Is it
mistake of Iraqi's that US invaded them without any proof of WMD's.

You go burning the whole world, in a century US has invaded more countries
than anybody else(Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Korean Peninsula, Japan,
Countries in South America). You've killed several millions of people under
the pretext of war, destroyed their national infrastructure to dust. Denied
them any hope recovery by sanctions. And you call others backward?

------
rauljara
The racism those photos document is startling. Just 50 years ago?

Though, in my private high school in Indiana, in 1999 I overheard kids more
than once telling n __*er jokes. I heard less overtly racists at the school
saying things like "Yeah, it would be weird to have a black friend." These
were the rich kids who parents owned the local businesses. I have a hard time
believing the kids weren't getting it from the parents.

It seemed so absurd at the time, but I guess it's less surprising if you
remember segregation had only officially ended 37 years ago, then, and that
the klan remained active in Indiana for decades after.

That was 12 years ago, but I doubt it's all fixed since then. I know that
school is still basically exclusively white despite the town being about 25%
African American and 9% Latino. I fear the consequences of treating so many
people as less than people will stick with us for a long time. Kind of naive
to think they would all go away in just 50 years.

~~~
moldbug
Wow, enlightened white people. We sure are good at patting ourselves on the
back, aren't we?

Reality check: in 1962, every American city, north or south, with a
substantial black population had a thriving black business district and a
commercial middle class. Example: Bronzeville in Chicago.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas,_Chicago#Bronzeville>

Enlightened white people destroyed these worlds and the people who lived in
them. The replacement was this:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_Homes>

In San Francisco those neighborhoods were Third Street and the Fillmore.
Pictures of Third Street from the 1950s show fancy cars, fancy clothes, fancy
shops, not a white face in sight. Pictures of Third Street today show someone
about to sucker-punch the photographer and steal his camera.

In 1962 there were no no-go zones anywhere in America. Today I could walk five
miles from my home and be in a place where my life wasn't safe. Black America
in 2012:

[http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/uncensored---
video...](http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/uncensored---video-
breakdown---black-pool-party)

Upside: black people can vote. For the same party, every time. For a black
(or, well, half-East-African) president whose campaign office looks as white
as a Romney family reunion:

<http://freebeacon.com/minority-report/>

I think the enlightened people of 1962 might be a little incredulous at all
the back-patting going on in 2012. Nice job you've done of uplifting black
America, 2012. With successes like this, who needs failures?

~~~
jbooth
I can't believe this comment. Segregation and poll taxes were no big deal,
right? Things were great for black people back when it was enshrined legal
doctrine to treat them as a lower category of people.

You want to know why black people vote for the same party every time? Because
it's the alternative to your party.

~~~
gaius
The world is not that simple. Bush had Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, who
did Bill Clinton have? Al Sharpton?

~~~
jbooth
Clinton went on Arsenio Hall. He didn't need tokenism.

If you want to claim there's no undercurrent of racism in standard Republican
messaging, well, I can't prove it to you. Just know that most black people
disagree with you.

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/22/simpsons-mocks-
fox-...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/22/simpsons-mocks-fox-news-
racist_n_786712.html)

~~~
gaius
I don't know what that means, but the accomplishments of Powell and Rice stand
on their own. It is ludicrous to deem them mere tokens. In fact if Bush was a
dumb as the haters say, _Condi_ was to all intents and purposes both the first
black and the first female President...

~~~
jbooth
Their accomplishments do stand on their own. You were using them as tokens in
the above post, and I called it out. A couple of public figures don't undo an
entire culture and electoral strategy.

~~~
gaius
Not at all. Just demonstrating the falseness of the assertion that Republicans
don't represent or respect blacks.

Once again: The world is not as simple as that.

Oh, and while I am here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Democrats>

_Southern Democrats are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the
American South. In the 19th century, they were the definitive pro-slavery wing
of the party, opposed to both the anti-slavery Republicans (GOP)_

~~~
jbooth
The 19th century, thanks. Pretty disingenuous. You already know the content of
these links before clicking them, right?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_rights_(speech)>

<http://newsone.com/16051/top-10-racist-limbaugh-quotes/> (just for fun)

For what it's worth, I don't think President Bush the person was particularly
racist. But he was definitely the #1 candidate among racists.

~~~
davidw
You know a story probably wasn't HN material when you end up discussing racism
and recent US presidents:-/

------
joshuahedlund
Note to people who make decisions about content-based websites: Based on
previous experiences with these kinds of features on websites, I half expected
each picture to be on its own page. If it was, I did not intend to click past
the first one. However, in this case I browsed the entire thing, and am much
more likely to share this URL with others.

~~~
HeXetic
Even better, the Atlantic's photo articles like this can be navigated with the
arrow keys to go from one photo to the next.

~~~
blahedo
Even worse, you mean. It breaks the standard navigational tools, so after I
had hit pagedown several times, I pressed a right-arrow once to shift the page
slightly and it skipped me all the way back to the top. It happened again
later when I absent-mindedly pressed the right arrow again. This is totally
broken.

------
solutionyogi
I am from India (currently living in NY) and I find it really surprising that
it was only 50 years ago that there was race discrimination in US. My college
friends are all over the world (UK, rest of the Europe, Germany, Australia
etc.) and based on my conversation with them, USA is the place with least
amount of 'racism' against Asians (I put racism in quotes because there is no
blatant, in the face racism in USA. It's more about subtle racism against
Asians). In a place like NY, it's practically non-existent.

~~~
jaysonelliot
The photos of overt discrimination against African-Americans in 1962 remind me
of the overt discrimination we are seeing against gay people today. I hope a
similar retrospective in 50 years will see people saying "I find it surprising
that there was discrimination against gay people at one time."

~~~
rome
I don't see any similarity between the two. Blacks were trying to obtain equal
rights. The right to marry same sex is one that no one has, not just gay
people.

~~~
freehunter
How about:

"I don't see any similarity between the two. Gays were trying to obtain equal
rights. The right to be a black man and vote is one that no one has, not just
black people."

Straight people have the right to marry. Gay people don't. Same exact issue.
If you're not gay, you by default don't need the right to marry same-sex, just
like if you're not black, you don't need the right to be black and vote.

~~~
rome
Actually everyone except blacks could vote. Contrary to popular belief, gay
people can marry, just not same sex. This isn't a statement against same sex
marriage, I'm just making a subtle distinction. Gay people have never
experienced the maltreatment that blacks have in this country.

~~~
freehunter
Now I'm wondering if blacks could vote if they dressed up in whiteface and
pretended to be white to fool the voter board. You know, denying everything
they are. Just like a gay person marrying the opposite sex.

Gays have benefited from the liberalism and civil rights movement in that the
majority of the population doesn't hate them for being different. But you
can't deny that they're being harrased, beaten, killed, pushed to suicide,
thrown from their homes, and subjected to punishments designed to "fix" them.
It's doesn't have to be "black had it _worse_ ", the point of the matter is
gays have it _bad_.

I'm not trying to put words in your mouth since you didn't come out and
directly state your viewpoint, I'm just trying to show how fallacious the
words you did say are. Especially when we're on the verge of starting things
down the right path. Both blacks and gays have been are are being violently
persecuted for something they can't change. Telling gays to marry straight is
highly offensive.

~~~
rome
I did not tell anyone to marry, let alone tell gays to marry straight. I never
said that gays weren't treated badly. I also never said that gays should
pretend they are not gay to get married. Nothing I said was false or was meant
to slight gay people.

My comment was a response to someone comparing the two plights. For me, the
differences are worth discussing.

~~~
ScottBurson
First you say...

 _Gay people have never experienced the maltreatment that blacks have in this
country._

Then you come back with:

 _I never said that gays weren't treated badly._

Gays have been routinely beaten up and occasionally murdered for decades. Many
have been rejected by their _own families_.

Freehunter is right, of course -- this is not about comparing who is the most
persecuted, as if only the winner of such a comparison had the right to
complain about it. It's about seeing prejudice for what it is.

I think that if you really looked at what a lot of gay people have gone
through, you would not so facilely deny any similarity between that and what
blacks have experienced. Of course there are differences; they are different
situations. But there are also very substantial similarities. It appears that
you don't want to look at the similarities, and I think you should ask
yourself why not.

EDITED TO ADD:

You should really talk to some gay black people. The ones I have spoken to
about this have all said the experiences aren't very different at all.

------
js2
Here's some wonderful interviews by Studs Terkel done in the 60's that provide
a nice audio complement to these pictures:

<http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_051512.mp3/view>

I particularly enjoyed the interviews with R. Buckminster Fuller (18:50) and
Mahalia Jackson (24:40). If you have just 5 minutes, listen to the one with
Jackson which is about the racism of the time.

Sorry, there doesn't appear to be a transcript. The first interview starts at
13:30.

------
jaysonelliot
So much suffering, so much cruelty, so much wealth, and then moments of real
humanity and connection, especially in the children.

I started to tear up several times, staring into some of the photos—and I
realized how alike our world is today. We have a lot of work to do, here.

~~~
arethuza
"So much suffering, so much cruelty"

Indeed, and only by an incredibly narrow margin did we escape many orders of
magnitudes more suffering and cruelty - we really did come awfully close to
the edge during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

~~~
laacz
Actually, I believe that nowadays we live in even more cruel and lethal world
than 50 years ago. On the other hand, we also have so many wonderful things. I
do not believe that evil/good ratio has gone down in these 50 years.

~~~
trimbo
> I believe that nowadays we live in even more cruel and lethal world than 50
> years ago

Good news! You'd be wrong. The world is safer and more peaceful than it's ever
been. This book presents the facts on it: [http://www.amazon.com/Winning-War-
Decline-Conflict-Worldwide...](http://www.amazon.com/Winning-War-Decline-
Conflict-Worldwide/dp/0525952535)

The difference between then and now is that we have so much media to saturate
our minds. It seems like it's worse.

------
rajdevar
This is not about the world, it is about the US and how it perceived the world
as its allies and enemies 50 years ago. Better change the title as "The US in
1962"

------
_rj
Excellent pictures.

50 years ago, some countries were moving ahead with science/technology and
some were in the midst of war crisis. 50 years later, its still the same.

------
DanBC
Picture 47 - I thought it odd that no-one removed the sprue tags on the
lettering. Also, how deep is that TV?

Picture 44 - Anyone able to locate this on Google Maps? I can see a sign for
"Viginia Stree", but I'm having toruble finding the place.

~~~
DanBC
Picture 38 - Here's the street in 1978 (<http://berlin-
wall.org/popup/mur1.html>)

Here's the same street, but I need to work harder for a better location.

([http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Sebastian+Strasse+berlin&...](http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Sebastian+Strasse+berlin&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=52.504118,13.414137&spn=0.000225,0.000581&sll=54.265224,-4.042969&sspn=14.066762,38.056641&t=h&hnear=Sebastianstra%C3%9Fe,+Berlin,+Germany&z=21&layer=c&cbll=52.504118,13.414137&panoid=MH_p4DnNbkqqCcLhQNLXoQ&cbp=12,282.18,,0,0))

Lol Google, your urls.

~~~
krallja
Google will generate a short URL for you on demand: <http://g.co/maps/tdr8j>

Click the chain 'link' icon, then check "Short URL"

------
kia
This is great:

 _Use j/k keys to navigate_

~~~
jaysonelliot
Although, having grown up with keyboard-controlled games and the IJKL pattern,
I was expecting the K to scroll down, not the J.

~~~
lambda
These appear to be based on VI key bindings (hjkl).

------
chucknelson
Wow, some great pictures. It's exciting to think of what we'll think of
pictures taken from the year 2000 when we're all living in the year 2050.

~~~
foldingstock
We'll be thinking how cool it would be to see pictures from the year 2000 if
only they weren't locked away by DRM formats that are now unreadable in the
year 2050. ;)

~~~
freehunter
Not that I'm arguing against your point, but you've made me curious. Is there
actual DRM on photos? I know videos, music, games, books... but I haven't
heard of a DRM'd picture before. Any insight?

Personally, I would predict incompatible formats with no decryption program
available. Will Photoshop and .psd still be around in 50 years?

~~~
maxerickson
You will almost certainly be able to spin up an emulator and feed it whatever.

~~~
freehunter
To my point (and I guess the point of the DRM issue), that would depend on if
you could actually get a copy of Photoshop working. Would Adobe still be
running their activation servers? Would any of the cracks still be around? I'm
willing to admit I don't know if there are FOSS (or equivalent) .psd software.
Maybe GIMP will still be around, if it can open .psd?

~~~
maxerickson
Sure, it's an issue. PSD isn't actually all that opaque though (Adobe has
published some specifications for it).

I guess most consumer formats are pretty broadly supported by open software,
most of the hard to access stuff will be pretty specialized.

------
speg
We've come so far, yet still have so much to do.

------
darksaga
I've always thought about the ravages of war nowadays and how many countries
are constantly in conflict. As a great admirer of this period in American
history, I have to conclude war and pestilence have always been around and are
more symptomatic of the human race than of some particular span of time. The
reminders were quite eye opening.

------
fedd
The U.S. Centric View on the World in 1962.

Except the Mongolian photo. How did it make there?

~~~
trimbo
I never understand this complaint. It's a US-based news source (The Atlantic)
posted to a US-based news aggregator (HN). Why would you expect, or demand, it
to not be US centric? You're more than welcome to post collections like this
from non-US news sources on hacker news, if you wish.

~~~
ezequiel-garzon
_Why would you expect, or demand, it to not be US centric?_

I, for one, would not. But "The World" in the title seems unwarranted. Just as
it does for many "World Series" that only apply to the US, even if everybody
deems American teams of sport X to be clearly above the rest.

~~~
mindrag
The best baseball players in the world play in the US, so it truly is a World
Series, regardless of where the teams play.

~~~
canadiancreed
Well not all of them play in the US.

[http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=tor&sv=1](http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=tor&sv=1)

