Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
17 View of the SAGE Air Surveillance Room - Direction Center, 1960s.
control were concerned. It was an unreliable and flawed system,
which did not perform well in tests. Edwards suggests that its
military shortcomings were well known to those involved, and it
may never have been intended to be of any practical use. He points
to the decision to place SAGE control centres above ground, and
thus vulnerable to attack, as demonstrative of the
Air Force's
secret intention always to be first to use nuclear weapons.
24
But, as
a symbolic defence SAGE worked well in creating the impression for
the public of a powerful and reliable air defence system.
25
The
technological developments it helped engender also contributed to
commercial computer systems such as IBM's System /
us
(their first
attempt to build a complete suite of compatible computer systems),
the airline ticket booking system SABRE, and an airforce-funded
attempt to automate the complex work of machine tool operators.
These projects aside, Whirlwind and SAGE are important for a
number of more abstract reasons. Apart from demonstrating the
importance the military attached to computer development, it also
represented a decisive shift in military thinking from analogue,
electromechanical machines to electronic, digital systems. This in
turn encouraged an understanding of the computer as more than
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