Hawkins's computer was too literal. But his instinct — that Stonehenge handled information — survives every test the sixty years since have thrown at it. An investigation through stone provenance, isotopes, ancient DNA and landscape archaeology, ending with a named, testable hypothesis: the Gathering Engine.
Cities ran sewers and traffic computers long before anyone sold them the word. Around 2008 “smart” acquired an owner. Four product cities show what it cost.
As regular readers of this blog know I have an abiding interest in Artificial Intelligence, and, in particular, it's potential to develop proto-consciousness, or,...