In the summer of 2017 I began working on an ambitious video project to reveal the history of the microcomputer revolution through the lens of Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan. All I had was this basic concept and the title which had burst into my head one evening and, for reasons beyond my understanding, demanded to be interpreted through the work. I decided to scour the internet to discover its meaning.
I spent four unemployed months—thousands of hours—of researching books and documentaries and gathering rearranging hundreds of clips and timestamps. I arranged and rearranged the short clips on a video timeline over and over, searching through the combinations like they were tarot cards. Finally it all assembled for me, and I spent 48 manic hours awake until finally uploading the final render of Silicon & Charybdis I on November 26th, 2017. This video, albeit rather technical, tells the story of the Intel 8080 microprocessor, Gary Kildall and his DOS operating system, the MITS Altair and Microsoft BASIC.
I’ve written more about the behind-the-scenes development of episode one over on Less Wrong, my blog about the psychosis I was experiencing during this period.
On March 12, 2018, Silicon & Charybdis II was released. Thanks to a much better understanding of editing and production, this installment is probably the best entry-point into the series. Here we get an understanding of computer programming, the pedagogical techniques of Seymour Papert and his LOGO language, the “killer apps” of Word Processing and Spreadsheets, and the nature of human-machine interaction.
On November 12, 2018, I proudly released Silicon & Charybdis III, which focuses on the evolution of computer simulation from American Air Defense training in the 1960 using punch cards and analogue media, straight through to the merging of object oriented programming and the cathode ray tube into the modern desktop paradigm. If you’ve only time to watch one, this is the one!
More episodes are in the works! Please subscribe to my YouTube channel!