Seymour Cray

We talk about a particular quote that I feel is so necessary.

What's happening today in our country? And this one comes from Seymour Cray.

One of my guiding principles is don't do anything that other people are doing.

Meaning what? He's the guy that believed that you should refuse to follow the crowd.

It happened in Wisconsin because there's so much crazy stuff.

But yeah, Seymour Cray, godfather of the supercomputer, grew up in a little town called Chippewa Falls.

If you've ever had Leinenkugel's beer, that's where it originally came from.

So if you've seen Leinenkugel's or had a Leine's, You got Chippewa Falls to thank for that.

But as far as the supercomputer, Seymour Cray grew up there.

He was the son of a civil engineer.

He was a child genius for sure.

He didn't want people looking over his work.

So all that and more, as we say, on the Patreon.

I routinely forget that Seymour Cray, the first name in supercomputing, was a resident of my adopted home state of Wisconsin, and I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago when I learned about a thing called the US Mint's American Innovation $1 Coin Program.

Lest this accidentally become a numismatic and monetary policy podcast, let me just briefly say that in the late 1990s, the United States actually ran a small budget surplus, and one of the ways that policymakers responded was to start minting a billion different coins, starting with custom quarters dedicated to each of the 50 states.

And there were attempts to do circulating dollar coins, which never goes well.

What follows is a brisk paced dive into the earliest days of organized computing, including the stuff that predates transistorized computing altogether.

Now, because so many of the movers and shakers are, you know, kind of working together to shape the world to come, there are a lot of overlapping tales in the early days of Cray.

You know, as Seymour Cray is becoming a staple of his tiny industry, there are mergers and acquisitions and spinoffs and startups.

So, you know, just the story of Control Data Corporation, where Cray put in a significant amount of time, like, that itself could be its own 75-minute documentary.

the record, I know this is Chase Glazer, formerly of the intelligence operation Infowars and a 32nd degree Mason.

So in no way am I supporting this guy.

But since I work full time, I didn't have time to clip this all together.

So I'm going to play this real quick and try not to laugh at her, Cindy.

Oh, there's that word, smart city.

showcase the latest cutting-edge innovations and smart city sector, introduce new concepts and structures, design smart cities, examine challenges of construction and propose scientific solutions, as well as develop cooperation with other countries and benefit from the achievements and successful experiences of smart cities.

The event will serve as a great platform for experts in smart cities, urban management, industrialists, oh, industrialists, those aren't good guys, scholars, and knowledge-based companies to boost their own, their interactions.

And I guess the point is, is that's the end game, right? Don't pay attention to all the talking heads while they're getting us there.