onnruiMARCH 1989 THE ULTIMATE TRAVEL GUIDE EXPLORING HAITI'S RIDING THE WORLD'S VOODOO UNDERGROUND MOST TERRIFYING HUNTING FOR J ROLLER COASTERS MAMMOTHS IN BORNEO'S WILD SOUTH DAKOTA ORANGUTAN WATCH nnnrui VOL. 11 NO. 6 MARCH 1989 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EDITOR: PATRICE ADCROFT GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR: STEVE FOX ART DIRECTOR: DWAYNE FLINCHUM CONTENTS PAGE FIRST WORD The Future of Thinking Leon Cooper 6 Machines OMNIBUS Dal a Bank 10 COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 14 FORUM The Automation Generation Alex Kozlov 18 STARS Supernovas and the Search J. Kelly Beatty 24 for Extraterrestrial Intelligence BODY Medical Atom Smashers Gregg Levoy 26 EARTH Desert Farming Douglas Starr 28 SPACE Inside the Soviets' Mission James E. Oberg 30 Control Facility ARTIFICIAL Battling Computer War Sieve Dillea 32 INTELLIGENCE Games CONTINUUM American Myopia and the 33 Future of the Environment, etc. FIVE STAR The Ultimate Vacation Guide Jeff Goldberg 42 TRAVELOGUE From Space Trips to Voodoo Journeys UPWARDLY MOBILE Pictorial: Future Cars Dooley Adcroft 48 FILMING THE Fiction Garry Kilworth 52 MAKING OF THE FILM OF THE MAKING OF FITZCARRALDO THE MASTER Science and the Legacy of Gurney Williams III 58 OF MATH Srinivasa Ramanujan CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Cartoon Pictorial Steve Attoe 65 OF THE THEORETICAL KIND INTERVIEW Jack Horner: The Man Who James Gorman 72 Loves Dinosaurs ANTIMATTER Reopening Project Blue 81 Book, etc. SNOW ANGELS Fiction Michael Swanwick 104 STAR TECH Future Home Movie Theaters Judy Feldman 118 GAMES Am big rams: The Results Scot Morris 120 of Competition #46 LAST WORD Humor: Dragnelting Bees Kathy Thornock 124 Airstream, a Steve Pietzsch OMMII.-EMCI.K.lf'Vnii'ir.-. 5h5(! anal Lid., 1965 Broadway, ss. POSTMASTER: Send acrylic, reflects the Copyngh! © artist's interest in Eastern religion and surrealism. "I've shown the trailer house floating to give the sense that it is the center of the universe, " says Pietzsch, a Texas painter. A OMNI '. ' ' ii.i. :' , N;:i in ,. '. believed'. good models for the brain. In the v.ng that neural networks, data, processing brain, large numbers of indiv-dual systems modeledon some properties of ner the brain and rici'vons syslarr; were toe perform 1 idv one . remarkable tasks that ever' the largest ... !.- ; i'ii. .: 11: i : in. i ; ipnco h computers have rot been able to match.' shifted from the belief that reu-a: (Our ability to think is a result of the networks cojid de noih'ng to the interplay between the brain's ncro-is.') . ! ! M.; will i everything: are ol do . Neurbcornputers made many i i echnolog'y- relativey s rnoie e ecfronic processors suggest 7 Tnat the brain :i.seh, me that 'are connected to one another in source of thCLighi -ramcy consc;ous- manner analogous I : a ne II thai brain's neurons a-e connected, ''-leural makes us human- rn'ont oo tnmcked systems are by a machine tnat ".I" cks as well as cr subjecting tne-- to spec fie input and bette'tnanwedo laurai rn presei 1v then showing them the oes red oatpel. .housec ir sots-ware sr-ula:ions l.iai Eventual the neurocomputer picks- . .'. ... are'jr on o-dl'iary a : , w ak. upthepa't'tern. con'-monsenso chorees, anc They can In cooperation with current computer 'cam horn exo&nenoe science, nei Tie. i' ;: Scler i bee dying neural Of L I networks in the Fifties. Resescche-s .of computer architecture systems :hai hoped to unravel !he como e-xilies of co-cbinc the enormous processing wtli : human perception, bui en:husasm -or power of Von Neumann com outers sions FIRST iiiis project G:S i ate S'xl es. me ability to make sensible dee Co and learn from ordinary expor'enee as aged by slo wo do. Because nou-a networks :eam ' !'>! i . i ".! in. 1 1 . UUDRD n'i !".i -i -I to solve problems or their own tney toward a.mncial Intelligence. It was require much less of By Leon Cooper ',;• i tor be. i , i er: oul lb Knowledge and expense neeee-d program- &o :o per'orm any las.*;. :.i!l.;.ey-!-.iH!;il!geiice products. neurai network " ^What does I computers a-e ir their current stare, neural networks ! iir-itSi in .i..i'i. : 'bk'nis in are probably best at probe™ related technology suggest? my j • - i.t'i i in , ! i n re- on his :o paiiern recognitor! such as reading That the brain—-the source of ~ ' :' : '.vi: ixmg lire ha: ! in ids n ura! nel Z codes, reccgr assembly ' thought, memory, works The military, tor instance, lias an pads, diagnosing e='igin« prohe-ms. and/ and consciousness—might, inre'&s! in developing networks that or iransiatlng fiard-io-'ead s gnaluros can -cci gniz ind c: i oat" cms. ii by distinguishing among ciiheren sn/les mimicked by a : be i very dli cu: l> wri: > c ru es of whang riru-e app- cat'ons might machine that thinks as well as for discriminating between a connrercial include send'ng neu'al nets to probe craft and a' fighter plar:e on a radar- sc-s ons in ' or than ... better we do$ [ scope Thins ii is extremely diMicui! ;o response o unexpected breurn- design a ccrvoni.iorai computer program s:ances. i hoy will -Ikoy be integrated /; ;v : to take over :h!s task. The standard Into ry i ,.! ;y ,te consider (deve oped fro-" a model whe^e part of the computer will oe conceived f. operated by u.le-based eernpuiing ami Neumann in the rrjd-Faniesj requires the other carl by neural networks. steo nysieo T-sfruct;cris. Neural nets, x.poc hai 'Ui; ! : .:...- i lology however, "nay be able to classify Images will oe made available for speech I on a r o^r recognition i .ne rpensiv household i signal and the operator s evaiuaton i - t i i ry [he craft. After numerous examples, telephones— oy buha'ng neural ci-cuilry the neuroco b:roc: y into the appliances. identify trie radar s gnats. Who .would have thought, rhat today I; is arse cfifiicijil to define rules for ;here won c be '-arv-mys. silicon otvps, : loan approval. A neural system that can anc the vas: army ei devices on which 7 r:\-r\r an underwriter's doe-sloes arid alt computers depone O that super determine tie rsks of approving :cans to conductors would lead tc ex ".rao-ci parity- consumers is curently In the prototyoe sensitive magnetic he;d defec:p-s now .Stage. The netwrrk -s trained \:w show : iig carried on many naval ships'7 Jest i '<<! ":: ;.:.: r ij n as ine -wontioth convey .s \i~\e cents y and then Indicating both the underwriter's '!,: ;es iirptai tni decisions and-, among accepted- loans, computers, the twenty-firs! century will those trial -were never. paid- bacjCBy oe the century oi intel'igon: machines. i.- ii i ice -I no i 'Ciale '.vi>hgooo .We will not only learn to live whh those loans arid t-'aits chame'eristic oi bad machines, bu; someday we will wonoe' Joans, the network can de-e-mane which how we ever fved without them.OO" I applicants are most likely to dela.r- on their loans in -future. the "' ibei prize : subtract add. i Although computers ''. ..'.'' .' . : . '. ' '.' . '. ' and execute inst.rucaons wtn incredible itucii'/riy. rcoay r>s is sewn ci cubing '::;:,- speed and accuracy, they fail to be chines i.n-n one do/ '::[ ;yeAjRSCTH1 WORD -0t% mm Collect ten magnificent i^fc scale re-creations— ) W~- •.. I\ from Caesar to I - km the 20th century. f Hilts of gold, silver tiHf m -—L—^"^ s"'' .:'' and brass. — x Blades wrought of tempered stainless steel. SEP Japanese Katana America's independence. Ten legendary swords re-created o an impressive 1:3 scale. With >lades of tempered stainless steel— V collection of the Hilts selectively and official nscriptions. V ' — I Military Archives. electroplated with 24 karat gold and 1 ' i longsword that built sterlingsilver...andembellished I an Empire. The battle with brass, enamel, even Oriental I iU a v;i-i •*"*• nEs used " ^raiding. Crafted abroad, this k 1 collection comes to you complete M with a custom-designed display. Four swords above shown actual Size. _ \ — NTRIBUTOR.c Dnnrun quite different," New York City-based The same spirit of adventure so basic shooting the still lifes. "It's he explains. "They unlike people TheExplorers Club, for ihose who to Jack Horner was exhibited by writer — never talked back." don't know, gives the appear- Jell Goldberg while compiling "Omni's Travelogue" (page 42). As part The imaginations of those in the ance that Teddy Roosevelt just left it: Five Star science -fiction community are always There's a stuffed bear, lots of wood, and of his research, Goldberg journeyed joined an iguana hunt. working, as evidenced by two stories: at least one f irepiace. It was in this to Trinidad and "Filming the Making of the Film of the "It was terrible," he says, much chagrined. setting that I dined with Jack Horner like lizard. But Making of Fltzcarraldo" (yes, the movie (no, not in a corner), along with about a "It tasted crunchy— a title) it all will be shorter than the story's dozen other members ot the press. the worst part? I had to look at day, by Garry Kitworth, on page 52, and This paleontologist, who has made the staring at me with these unforgiving that Michael Swanwick's "Snow Angels," on search for dinosaur eggs every bit reptilian eyes that seemed to know dinner." Trinidad turned page 104.