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03:54

France's "Racy" Electronic Mail.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg will discuss the effects of Minitel, the computer distributed by the telephone system in France that has brought a word processor to every home with a phone.

Commentary
10:01

Bill Viola's "Video Art."

Video artist Bill Viola. His work draws on his extensive travel throughout Northern India, the Sahara, the American West and Europe and strives to establish video as an art independent of film and television. Viola has been working with video since 1970, including stints as an artist-in-residence at WNET's Artists' Television Laboratory, and as a Guggenheim Fellow.

Interview
10:00

Computer Animator Steven Segal.

Computer animator Steven Segal. Segal does his programming on his home computer, unlike most computer animation which is composed on complex processors. His entry in a national computer animation festival is titled "Dance of the Stumblers."

Interview
04:00

We're Not in Oz Anymore.

Television Critic David Bianculli talks about the effect video cassette recorders have had on the way his kids watch TV.

Commentary
04:08

Talking Computers and Their Language.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg explores the language and sounds of talking computers and how they handle the subtlety of vocal inflection. (Segment)

Commentary
27:54

Test Pilot General Chuck Yeager.

Yeager broke the sound barrier flying the X-1 jet plane. The accomplishment not only helped revolutionize aviation; it put him in the public eye. He later appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and television commercials. His newly-published second memoir is called Press On!.

Interview
06:05

A Short History of Silicon Valley

Writer Stuart Brand joins Fresh Air to talk about the technology-focused business culture that's developing in the Bay Area. He says it's turned San Francisco into a kind of global frontier town.

Commentary
03:30

What Computer Language Says About Human Understanding

Some people bemoan the use of computer language to describe human behavior. But linguist Geoff Nunberg says the trend works both ways: we often discuss technology in anthropomorphic terms -- but only when it malfunctions.

Commentary
03:42

Looking Back on the Apollo Program.

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of man's first walk on the moon, commentator Stewart Brand shares his thoughts on space exploration and how it has changed us. Brand is founder of The Whole Earth Catalog.

Commentary
03:28

A New Virtual Reality.

Commentator Stewart Brand reports on his first journey through cyberspace, a type of three-dimensional computer-generated world that humans can `fly through' by simply pointing a finger. Brand traces the evolution of Cyberspace through recent fiction.

Commentary
22:14

James Cameron Discusses Underwater Directing.

Director James Cameron. Though his career is relatively young, Cameron has established himself as one of the best directors and writers of intense dramas that jump between exhilaration and terror. His best-known work is "Aliens," the sequel to the 1979 sci-fi classic in which Lt. Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, stalks a vicious alien that's invaded her spacecraft and is slaughtering the crew. The film was nominated for seven Oscars and won two.

Interview
06:39

"The Learner Must Always Be Led From the Familiar to the Unfamiliar."

Contributor Ilene Segalove takes us on a tour of The Museum of Jurassic Technology, a Los Angeles museum of "unnatural history." The museum features exhibits of the bizarre and improbable, such as the "Deprong Mori," a South American bat that uses X-ray to fly through solid objects, or the way extreme ultraviolet rays appear to restore the flesh to a skeleton.

Commentary
22:35

Computer Scientist Bill Joy.

Bill Joy. He's a founder and Vice President of Research and Development for Sun Microsystems, one of the most innovative and successful computer companies. He imagines the computer of 14 years from now, a machine he calls the "2001 computer." It will be a phenomenally fast machine (128,000 times the speed of current computers), with a memory capacity the equivalent of 300,000 books, all fitting into the size of a sugar cube. (Interview with Sedge Thomson)

Interview

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