A “today in history” post from The Poynter Institute includes an old newsreel showing that ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, was also the first to raise the specter of government prying eyes … or a least a look over your shoulder.
Here’s that 20th Century Fox newsreel, with a transcript below for those who’d rather read:
Transcript:
In 1946, moviegoers got their first glimpse of an astonishing new machine.
Are people becoming obsolete? A giant electronic brain has started cogitating at the University of Pennsylvania. It’s made of vacuum tubes like your radio and it can add up a column of figures a yard long in a second. It’s the world first electronic computer. Right now it’s solving mathematical problems for the U.S. Army, but who knows, someday a machine like this might check up on your income tax.
Or, who knows, maybe even monitor your phone conversations?
