JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Only a few days ago I made a post featuring the tides of war taking place inside a RCA electronic tube/valve, and just this morning I shared an unusual image of a proto-robot with a si-fi-ish view of the "robot's brain"--it is probably high time that these mechanical/electronic brain human-as-machine images be collected. A good number of them are unintentionally anthropomorphic, but the majority (as in this case) are not. The current image (from an issue of LIFE magazine ca. 1944) invites us into "Electronia", a world apart from the carbon-based world at war, electronic innovations by the Bendix Aviation Corporation that essentially became "the invisible crew". The fact of the matter is that this was largely correct--the tech innovations that were taking place in 1943/4 were fantastic,and were being undertaken at a pace and scope that was incredible. The text of the ad highlights some of the integral electronic advancements made by Bendix, and the graphics depict some of the latest aviation advancements that would help crush the Luftwaffe and Imperial Air Force (what seems to be a P-51, a P-38, and a B-17G, plus on the right some new bomber and what seems to be two jet aircraft). Marshall Admiral Yamamoto was correct when he hypothesized that attacking and declaring war on the U.S. would lead to the destruction of the Japanese military and the defeat of the empire given the spectacular potential of U.S. industrial and technological capacity, and this ad shows just one small aspect of the advances that Japan could not possible counter--and I believe that at the time this ad appeared Yamamoto was already dead, a casualty of war and to U.S. ingenuity in breaking many of the Japanese ciphers and codes.
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