{"id":3390,"date":"2023-04-20T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T15:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=3390"},"modified":"2023-04-11T20:09:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T00:09:34","slug":"the-groundbreaking-computer-speech-record-from-bell-labs-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2023\/04\/the-groundbreaking-computer-speech-record-from-bell-labs-1963\/","title":{"rendered":"The Groundbreaking &#8220;Computer Speech&#8221; Record from Bell Labs (1963)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Deep Dive into the Past: The Groundbreaking &quot;Computer Speech&quot; Record from Bell Labs (1963)\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HVOo9bhcsH4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Hear the groundbreaking &#8220;Computer Speech&#8221; record from Bell Telephone Laboratories, which features synthesized speech created by one of the earliest computer speech synthesis systems. Directed by D.H. VanLenten, this record represents a significant milestone in the development of speech synthesis technology. \u2026 You&#8217;ll also discover how punched cards were used to provide the computer with detailed instructions on how to manipulate the various formants to produce different sounds [and] explore the fascinating technique called formant synthesis, which involves simulating the resonances of the human vocal tract, and the IBM 704 computer used to generate the speech sounds.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Incidentally, this record predates Kubrick\u2019s <em>2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em> by four years, and came out at least a year\u00a0 before he began considering the project in earnest. We know that <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)#Pre-production\">his work in <em>2001<\/em> was influenced by educational materials from the time<\/a>; hard to believe this wasn&#8217;t one of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, just for the record: this &#8220;talking computer&#8221; was <strong><em>exactly<\/em><\/strong><em> <\/em>as intelligent as ChatGPT or any current AI, and considerably less so than a parrot\u2014and inspired the same blue-sky certainty in the media. Hell, here&#8217;s an article about computers talking and reliably taking natural-language instruction <em><strong>within the next decade!!!<\/strong><\/em> (It was written in 1959.):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"387\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-04-11-at-6.50.09-PM-387x1024.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of article from December 2, 1959 titled &quot;Talking Computers Foreseen in Decade.&quot; The first paragraph reads: &quot;Ten years from now it will be possible literally to speak to an electronic computer and have it answer right back.\u2026&quot;\n\nObservers will note that was a somewhat optimistic estimate (the first commercial product that approximated this functionality was released in the 2010s) .\" class=\"wp-image-3391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-04-11-at-6.50.09-PM-387x1024.png 387w, https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-04-11-at-6.50.09-PM-113x300.png 113w, https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-04-11-at-6.50.09-PM.png 427w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 387px) 85vw, 387px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hear the groundbreaking &#8220;Computer Speech&#8221; record from Bell Telephone Laboratories, which features synthesized speech created by one of the earliest computer speech synthesis systems. Directed by D.H. VanLenten, this record represents a significant milestone in the development of speech synthesis technology. \u2026 You&#8217;ll also discover how punched cards were used to provide the computer with &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2023\/04\/the-groundbreaking-computer-speech-record-from-bell-labs-1963\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Groundbreaking &#8220;Computer Speech&#8221; Record from Bell Labs (1963)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[19,11,3],"tags":[585,65,572,180,899],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/a2mi.social\/@dave0\/110231774085640251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3394,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390\/revisions\/3394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}