In some ways, the description of the “bionic computer” in the British Aircraft Corporation internal intelligence report from 1964 sounds remarkably modern, even futuristic. What’s described is work by the Space General Corporation and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on developing an artificial brain of power and complexity on par with a human brain. This is something being worked on today, and won’t be achieved for some years yet, but the description here makes it seem like it was not that far off. But the description of the actual mechanism? Odd, to say the least. It *seems* that they though that a simple iron wire (presumably microscopic in size) would make a practical analog for a neuron, and to make it work it simply needed to be dunked in nitric acid. Adding proper salts to the mix would cause the wires to grow functional analogs to the dendrites of organic neurons.
Very steampunk, I suppose… a “brain” made of iron suspended in an aquarium full of acid. Not programmed, but actually brought up to speed via actual “learning.”
