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Studies in Intelligence Vol. 70, No. 2 (Extracts, June 2026)

We Have Been Here Before: Joseph Becker's Computer and the AI Question

By Kenneth Malphurs, a member of CIA's Senior Analytic Service.

Introduction

In its Winter 1960 edition (Vol. 4, No. 4), Studies in Intelligence published "The Computer–Capabilities, Prospects, and Implications," by Joseph Becker, a pioneer in information technology. Much of the article now reads like a tour through a technical museum, with Becker writing about punch cards, magnetic tape, and machines that occupied dedicated space and required specialist operators, but the article's real subject was not hardware so much as the effect that a new tool might have on intelligence work. The article inspired this author to use AI tools to compare Becker's discussion of the then emergent IT issues with discussion of emergent AI today.

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