This is a rather interesting, albeit outright strange episode of the Computer Chronicles. It discuses a concept known as the “Fifth Generation Computer” which when you first hear it sounds like a discussion on computers produced around the time of this episode, 1984.
That’s not actually the case: The term “Fifth Generation Computer” in this context refers to, in a basic form, massive parallel processing computer systems capable of managing some form of artificial intelligence. Interestingly, according to the Wikipedia article on the topic, the project was completed over a period of a decade, but it’s success or failure is debatable.
With tools today like Apple’s Siri or Microsofts Cortana, Amazon Alexa or Google Home all tapping into the resources of the internet to bring information and to a limited extent to help their end users solve problems, you can say we have reached and are passing this era. We have the Artificial Intelligence support we have wanted since the early days of computing albeit, as with most all technology, not quite in the form originally proposed.
I’m not going to lie, this might well be the single most boring episode of The Computer Chronicles ever! Seriously, it’s dull as all hell, and the only reason I’m showing it is it’s the one that came up and I felt like getting it out of the way sooner, rather than later. The “Random Access” news segment at the end of the episode is more enteresting than the rest of the episode, that’s just how boring this one is! Still, it’s a topic worth looking into in this context as much as any other covered in the program.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you though – you might well go to sleep watching this one!