Could we live now like it was the 1960's?

[T-Square]

For surveying traverses my Dad used traverse tables and log tables. The books needed for the accuracy required were huge. Computers are great tools for that mind numbing work.

 

[James]

Hidden Figures does a good job of explaining why the computer was necessary... as an adjunct to the number crunchers and a data check/balance.

Why "adjunct". Real time computing, simulating the onboard systems, and processing telemetry from around the world. Just a few of the adjuncts.

They certainly used paper:

Margaret Hamilton stands next to a stack of Apollo Guidance Computer source code. Credits: MIT Museum

Later in charge of onboard software for Apollo, Margaret Hamilton was 24yrs old in 1960 when she got a job as a programmer at MIT. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Pres Obama in 2016.

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Hamilton led the team that developed the building blocks of software engineering – a term that she coined herself. Her systems approach to the Apollo software development and insistence on rigorous testing was critical to the success of Apollo. As she noted, “There was no second chance. We all knew that.”

...In fact, the Apollo guidance software was so robust that no software bugs were found on any crewed Apollo missions, and it was adapted for use in Skylab, the Space Shuttle, and the first digital fly-by-wire systems in aircraft.
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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/margar...ngineer-awarded-presidential-medal-of-freedom
Also:
https://www.wired.com/2015/10/margaret-hamilton-nasa-apollo/

On her love of math in school:
"I liked deriving things. I didn't want to memorize. I was lazy"
From youtube: youtu.be/kTn56jJW4zY

 

[mdf]

Testing software that way is mingboggling-ly expensive. Classically, the test team has as many people as the development team.
Which is why modern software goes out the door buggy to be tested by its users in the wild.

 

[Ski&ride]

Testing software that way is mingboggling-ly expensive. Classically, the test team has as many people as the development team.
Which is why modern software goes out the door buggy to be tested by its users in the wild.

I don’t think you can compare the quality required on software for moon landing with software for people yelling at each other

 

[crgildart]

Testing software that way is mingboggling-ly expensive. Classically, the test team has as many people as the development team.
Which is why modern software goes out the door buggy to be tested by its users in the wild.

In Agile methodology they hope bugs lead to better features as they are resolved..

As for returning to the sociopolitical climate of the 60s...

 

[Varmintmist]

You don't have to buy all the newest and bestest stuff... only thing I would argue you 'need' to have now vs. 20+ years ago is a smart phone + data plan. This is from the point of view of a consumer... plenty of other great things have been advanced in the last 60 years.

Perhaps it is more cost effective to have internet + wifi for the home and smaller data plan. This opens up a lot of convenience, but you don't need to be using it all the time. It's OK to not answer it or check every notification. There are so many movie plots, even into the 1990s, that would have been resolved in about 1 minute with a smart phone.

Nope. It would drag on like war and peace.

When texting became #1 and somewhat in email people forgot how to communicate. What is confused in 30 texts over the course of two days or a email chain that lasts a week because we hire people who never did the work, would be solved in a min with a rotary phone. That and since we were not calling everyone about everything all the time, we would just handle the problem ourselves. If you had to call, you called someone who could actually help instead of being put into a que to get a person who will read a manual to you.