January
17 1961: Dwight Eisenhower, in his farewell address to the nation,
warns against the increasing power of a 'military-industrial
complex.' Three days later J.F.K. is sworn in as the 35th
President of the United States of America. His military briefings
include the latest plans (code name: Operation Pluto) for the
invasion of Cuba.
On the
morning of the final day of January, 1961, Ham the Astrochimp
(officially No. 65 but known as Chop Chop Chang to his handlers) is
rocketed into space aboard the Mercury-Redstone 2. In his pre-flight
training 65 has been taught to push a lever within five seconds of
seeing a flashing blue light; failure to do so resulting in an
application of positive punishment in the form of a mild electric
shock to the soles of his feet while a correct response from him
earns a banana pellet. During the Mecury mission the chimpanzee's
vital signs and tasks are monitored by computers on Earth. His
lever-pushing performance in space is only a fraction of a second
slower than on Earth, demonstrating that lever-pushing tasks can be
performed in space. The capsule suffers a partial loss of pressure
during the flight, but No. 65's space suit prevents him from
suffering any harm. The capsule splashes down in the Atlantic
Ocean and is recovered by a rescue ship later in the day. His flight
was 16 minutes and 39 seconds long. He suffers only a
bruised nose.
1961 will
see another first, though somewhat more obscure: Leonard Kleinrock at
MIT (an R&D campus for the aforementioned military-industrial
complex) publishes Information Flow in Large Communication Nets,
the first paper on packet switching theory, the development of which
will be a step towards the creation of an 'Intergalactic Computer
Network.'
Lewis Mumford in the opening to his 1961 book The City in History asks the reader to consider the trajectory of modern urban civilization:
Will the city disappear or will the whole planet turn into a vast human hive?─which would be another mode of disappearance. Can the needs and desires that have impelled men to live in cities recover, at a still higher level, all that Jerusalem, Athens, or Florence once seemed to promise? Is there still a living choice between Necropolis and Utopia: the possibility of building a new kind of city that will, freed of inner contradictions, positively enrich and further human development?
...When we finally reach our own age, we shall find that urban society has come to a parting of the ways. Here, with a heightened consciousness of our past and a clearer insight into decisions made long ago, which often still control us, we shall be able to face the immediate decision that now confronts man and will, one way or another, ultimately transform him: namely, whether he shall devote himself to the development of his own deepest humanity, or whether he shall surrender himself to the now almost automatic forces he himself has set in motion and yield place to his dehumanized alter ego, 'Post-historic Man.' That second choice will bring with it a progressive loss of feeling, emotion, creative audacity, and finally consciousness.
Many cities, many existing educational institutions and political organizations have already made their commitment to Post-historic Man. This obedient creature will have no need for the city: what was once a city will
shrink to the dimensions of an underground control center, for in the
interests of control and automatism all other attributes of life will be
forfeited.
