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This film is about an idea.

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And idea we call the polymorphic concept
of data processing system design

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which is a complicated name for an idea

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but the idea itself isn't so complicated

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when you think of it in terms of how
people get machines to help solve their

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problems.

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Now if you have a problem to be
computed you take it to a computer

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and as your problems get bigger.

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You need a bigger computer as more and
more guys like you have problems to solve.

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They take turns on the computer which isn't
so bad if the computer is fast enough.

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Which it can be if it is big
enough and expensive enough

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but as the number of guys

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and the number of problems
increase the machine gets Isn't

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that a waste because while one guy is using
the computer to sounds an easy problem

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which may only be taking one
thousands of the computer.

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Everyone else has to wait on
that she spends still more money

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and buy a still bigger computer.

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But worse if one piece fades the
old computer will probably quit.

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Even though most of it
is perfectly good ready

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and willing to work much
around here to start with if

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you look inside. You see that it isn't
just one solid hunk of computer.

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A lot of individual parts and circuits
which each have specialized functions.

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Now it would be nice if
someone would divide

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that huge computer into little parts
and solder the connections so

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that everybody could get a chance to use
the parts in the needs for his particular

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problem.

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Next you will want to organize things
a little not in the usual way.

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But the brain the computer part
not only supervises everything.

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But also insists on doing a
large share of the detail work.

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What you want is more delegation

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and more easygoing cooperative
relationship between all the parts so

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that they can associate freely and
directly with one another in various ways.

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Isn't this a lot of fun actually.

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Of course the electronic boxes don't make
a nice flexible automatic switchboard

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connection like the telephone

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that way the computer box is the real
brains of the system don't have to waste

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their time

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and talent acting like telephone operators
trying to handle every single message

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person.

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They can stick to computing

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and let the other boxes do them such
as remembering a large number of facts

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or sending messages from one box to another
carrying out simple logical routines

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and so each computer box
doesn't have to be so big.

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This is distributed control distributed
memory distributed arithmetics.

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Distributed everything

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and it makes sense because no more than one
guy can be using the system at the same

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time a number of these are problems and

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when those occasional crash problems come
along your system can reconnect itself in

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a matter of microseconds to get them.

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Big jobs done as well as an
ordinary giant computer.

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And if one box quits.

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It's no great catastrophe the system just
automatically switches the job to another

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box.

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If you find yourself getting the business
signal to us from you by mode of exactly

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the kind of boxes you need.

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That's like adding on new
subscribers as they move it

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or you can add more displays so that
more people can see what goes on.

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Suppose your problem calls for a lot of
detailed work to do most of the time

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when you buy boxes to give you all
the memory or messenger service

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or whatever else you meet on the other hand
if your problems are mostly heavy duty

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brain. You can load your
system up with computer boxes

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when you really needed

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and can prove you need it you
can put together a big system

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or even a really big overinvesting early

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or throwing anything away or
starting from scratch again.

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So you save money and all the while you
have better reliability multiple use

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and better access.

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You can even switch
together to complexes three

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or four by commission by telephone system

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or you can connect in one of those ordinary
giant computers as a subscriber if you

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go for a super system
and this doesn't mean

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that you end up with one big party you
can keep some of the lines private eye

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opening. If you switch is permanently.

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So

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that certain information won't be
available to know the subscribers

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and so now you see that it wasn't
just exactly a computer you wanted

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but a group of. Guys with brains and
a group of boxes electronic brains

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and console displays all connected
together in varying ways

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and growing together so

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that the partnership can solve more problems
than each group could solve by itself.

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And this is all there is to the data
processing concept known as polymorphic many

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shape

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or multiple mode for The Matrix comes
from maybe just a common sense

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which brought out during
data processing system.

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Now it just so happens

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that Thompson has been working on the
polymorphic idea for several years.

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And in case you hadn't already guessed.

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We have built the first
actual polymorphic system.

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If you are interested but a small.