Season 1987 • Episode 3
LatestIn the last, extended edition of the series, Micro Live visits the Haymarket Theatre where the world of Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, is portrayed by Derek Jacobi in the stageplay Breaking the Code. Turing's computers in the 1940s and 1950s were 'first-generation' machines; now computer scientists are working on the 'fifth generation'. In Scotland the institute named after Turing has a world reputation in artificial intelligence work, but its software products are hardly used in the UK. In California, where seemingly limitless sums are thrown at research projects, 'Chinese temples', 'brainstorming' and robots for war veterans are the subjects of fifth generation work. Dr Ian Page of Oxford University puts such present and future work in perspective. (1987)
Micro Live was a BBC2 TV series produced by David Allen as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. The series was broadcast live and covered a wide range of computer-related topics, featuring various microcomputers beyond the BBC Micro. The first program was a two-hour special on 2 October 1983, called Making the Most of the Micro Live. A regular monthly series began in October 1984, followed by weekly half-hour programs in 1985 and 1986. The series ended in 1987. Micro Live had a less formal feel due to its live nature and included stories from the US, such as the first on-air transatlantic cellphone call made during a snowstorm.
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