S2E4: How Pamela Sees it: An Interview with Pamela McCorduck

Cut Pathways

The second season of Cut Pathways, the oral history podcast from the Carnegie Mellon University Oral History Program, dives into the influential history of computer science at CMU. In a six-episode series, titled “The Wild West of Computing,” hosts Katherine Barbera and David Bernabo along with guests historian Andrew Meade McGee and Curator of Special Collections Sam Lemley show how the culture surrounding computer science significantly altered the reputation of the school from 1956 to 1987.

In this episode, author Pamela McCorduck discusses her research in artificial intelligence in the 1970s. Pamela tells stories about her friendships with Herb Simon and Allen Newell, her book Machines Who Think, and a secretive group called the Squirrel Hill Sages. Sam Lemley joins us to talk about the Traub-McCorduck Collection—50 calculating machines, letters and books—housed at the CMU Libraries.