Common Threads: Media, Science, Technology, and Other Magic

The COVID-19 Chronicles (May 2020)

by John R. Carlsen

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 
2. Remember the Y2K Problem?
3. A Brief History of Toilet Paper 
4. Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant
5. Pandemics and Recessions
   • Why Texas?
6. Silicon Valley, 1970-1993 
   • The American Landing
   • Growing Up in Silicon Valley
   • Indistinguishable from Magic
   • The Middle of the Action
   • My Atari Neighborhood
   • Advertising Online
   • Bringing in the Big Iron
   • Silicon Valley Ups and Downs
7. The Space Race 
8. Early Computers 
   • Early Computers
   • The Apollo Guidance Computer
     • My First Look at an AGC
     • The AGC Data Terminal
     • AGC Chip-Level Integration
     • AGC Board-Level Integration
   • Read-Only Memories
     • Developing Patterns for Read-Only Memories
     • Historical Capacities of Interactive Electronic Distribution Media
9. The First Microprocessors 
   • The First Microprocessors
   • MOS Technology and the Western Design Center
   • What Happened to Motorola?
     • Motorola’s Origin
     • 6800: Good Part, High Price
     • 68000: Zeroing-in on Target
     • PowerPC: AIM for POWER
     • Freescale Freefall
   • Six Sigma vs. Total Quality Management
     • Ignoring Communication from Customers
     • Ignoring Communication to Customers
     • Picking the Customers’ Pockets
     • Lying to and Abandoning Customers
10. Champions of the Space Age 
    • Launch Vehicles; table: Survey of Astronometric Distances 
    • Bow Ties and Bull Horns
    • SpaceX (Almost)
11. Cars That (Nearly) Drive Themselves 
    • Cars That (Nearly) Drive Themselves
      • Teaching Autonomous Robots to Navigate
      • Early Automotive Navigation Systems
      • Global Positioning System
    • Automating Automobiles
      • Levels of Automation in Driving
    • Benefits of Automated Driving
      • Reducing Driver Fatigue
      • Collision Avoidance and Mitigation
    • Risks of Automated Driving
      • Unreasonable Over-Reliance on Technology
      • Who is Responsible?

Tables

1. Survey of Astronometric Distances