Analog Superpowers: How 20th Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State
Analog Superpowers: How 20th Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State
This is a hybrid in-person and online event. Pre-registration is required for either.
This talk is co-hosted by the IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee (SVTHC)
In this talk, which draws on her new book Analog Superpowers: How Twentieth-Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State, Katherine C. Epstein will explore a little-known but important chapter in the history of analog computing, and its surprising connections with today’s world of digital devices and great-power competition.
In the decade before World War I, two British civilians named Arthur Pollen and Harold Isherwood invented an artificially intelligent analog computer for aiming the big guns of battleships. Rather than pay for their invention, however, first the British navy and then the US navy pirated it. When the inventors sued for patent infringement, both governments invoked legal privileges to withhold evidence on the grounds of national-security secrecy. The US lawsuits became entangled with high-level Anglo-American diplomacy during World War II and with the Manhattan Project. The talk will thus speak to several major—and timely—issues: the intersection of computer technology and geopolitical rivalry, the impact of patent laws on defense innovation, and the scope of government secrecy.
Date and Time
Location
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Registration
- Date: 11 Mar 2025
- Time: 07:00 PM to 09:00 PM
- All times are (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
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- 673 South Milpitas Blvd.
- Milpitas, California
- United States 95035
- Contact Event Host
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The IEEE Santa Clara Valley (SCV) Section created the Silicon Valley Technology History Committee to hold regular technical events on a broad range of historical technologies that were conceived, developed, or progressed in greater Silicon Valley.
- Co-sponsored by IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee (SVTHC)
- Starts 12 January 2025 12:00 AM
- Ends 11 March 2025 12:00 AM
- All times are (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Katherine Epstein of Rutgers University
Biography:
Kate Epstein is an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University-Camden. Her research examines the intersection of defense contracting, government secrecy, and intellectual property in the United States and Great Britain in the first half of the 20th century, as well as Anglo-American relations and great-power competition.
Besides the new book that is the subject of this talk, she is also the author of Torpedo: Inventing the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States and Great Britain (Harvard University Press, 2014). Her work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Liberties, and American Purpose.
