Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Today on Modern Mechanix we learn that the sever threats to personal privacy inherent in massive government and corporate databases have been long been understood, just not dealt with. This 1967 Atlantic Monthly article predicts with uncanny accuracy most of the scary (and illegal) data mining techniques the government is using right now. Check it out, it’s well worth the read. We also look at a 1934 Popular Science article which details the ways electricity rules our lives, a cute dog named “slipstream” who helps out around an airport, a man who has made a career out of repairing old jukeboxes, a three wheel bike that drives like a car and a man who can carry a whole lot of baskets at one time.

1. [Anonymous]

   Not only does he predict the present abuses of privacy, he also foresees the concept of the relational database, over a decade before Codd’s work:

   “Certainly the computer can help us simplify record-keeping by assigning everyone a “birth” number that will identify him for tax returns, banking, education, social security, the draft, and other purposes.”