Episode 7
Family Issues
BOSTON, 1968: Evgeny examines an alternative, non-military hypothesis about the origins of the Environmental Ecology Lab. As personal struggles of Avery Johnson and Peter Oser, key collaborators of Warren Brodey, come to light, unsettling questions arise. Is the lab's true mission to enable Brodey, a gifted psychiatrist, to mend the fractures in their lives?
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McCulloch's lab published at least two reports on it (Sutro, Louis L., et al. Development of Visual Contact Subsystems. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Instrumentation Laboratory, July 1967, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Instrumentation Laboratory. Sensory, Decision and Control Systems April to July 1966. By Louis L. Sutro et al. Report No. R-548, November 1966) - for context, also see Driscoll, Leo C. Development of a Model of Machine "Hand-Eye" Coordination and Program Specifications for a Topological Machine Vision System. Final Report prepared for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C., Contract NASW-2243. Sudbury, MA: Cyberfacts, Inc., June 30, 1972 and Moreno-Díaz, R., Moreno-Díaz, R., Moreno-Díaz, A., Moreno-Martel, A. (2020). The Origin, Evolution and Applications of Visual Bio-cybernetics Concepts Included in the Original MIT-NASA Reports for Designing a Mars Rover (1965–1985). In: Moreno-Díaz, R., Pichler, F., Quesada-Arencibia, A. (eds) Computer Aided Systems Theory – EUROCAST 2019. EUROCAST 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12013. Springer, Cham.
Peter Oser to Danièle Tulli, letter dated July 12, 1969. Written in French. Original with Danièle Tulli, who has kindly shared it with me.
Johnson, Avery. "Information Tools That Decision Makers Can Really Talk With." In Decision Making in a Changing World: Selected Essays from Innovation Magazine, 1971.
The audio clip of Brodey's lecture is available here: Brodey, Warren. RIT Cary Graphic Design Archives, Will Burtin Papers, Subseries H. Audio/Visual, c.1956-1969, Vision 67.
Avery Johnson to Christian Grotte. Feb 10, 1969. Original in Francette Cerulli's possession.
Naguib, Mohamed, and David Douglas Duncan. "A King is Deposed: Six Fateful Hours." Life Magazine, August 25, 1952, 102.
Bateson Archives. Johnson to Bateson. Folder 728. Item 728-1. Letter from Johnson to Bateson dated 13 November 1970.
Avery Johnson to Paul Ryan. 18 January 1977. Series 2, Box 2, Folder 39. Paul Ryan Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Avery Johnson to Warren McCulloch, letter dated 18 July 1966. Avery Johnson folder, Box 13, Warren McCulloch Archive, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA (here).
"M’Cormick Family Affirms Mathilde’s Betrothal to Oser," New York Times, February 20, 1922, 1.
See Mathilde McCormick to Anita McCormick Blaine, letter dated July 2nd 1940. Box 544. UW-Madison & Wisconsin Historical Society. Thanks to Marino Miranda for helping me with the archival work there.
Chadwick, Margaret Lee. A Dipperful of Humanity: The Chadwick Adventure in Education. San Pedro, CA: Anchor Press, 1978, 44.
Note from Anita to her children, undated. Original in possession of Ramona Berent and Chris Pauling.
Note from Anita to her children, undated. Original in possession of Ramona Berent and Chris Pauling.
Peter Oser to Bonnie Re letter dated January 17, 1967. A digital copy is the possession of Evgeny Morozov.
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One of the illustrations of how the Mars Rover was supposed to "see"
Photo: a NASA report prepared by McCulloch's MIT lab