Tom Snyder Interviews Durk Pearson and Jerry Pournelle Pt 3

Tom Snyder Interviews Durk Pearson and Jerry Pournelle Pt 3

The final segment of that night's show includes Durk's description of how computers are going to change everyone's lives, how much better computerized cars are and how everyone will have interactive general purpose computers in just ten years. Durk and Jerry then boldly makes the assertion that within twenty to thirty years mankind will be able to control computers merely by thought, and any question the answer of which is known or calculable will be instantly answered, revolutionizing education. Durk points out that a computer has already passed the Turing Simulation Test as of 1979. Tom worries about computers running our lives, but is reassured by Durk and Jerry otherwise.

Mind you, this was at a time when personal computers were still very much a hobbyist curiosity, and processors like the Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 were "high tech".