Week 12 Flashcards
(31 cards)
What defined the Cold War in the mid-20th century?
The Cold War with its nuclear shadow and the space race.
What was the political, ideological, and economic rivalry during the Cold War primarily between?
The United States and the Soviet Union.
What concept describes the fear of possible conflict during the Cold War?
Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD).
What term describes the continuation of large-scale scientific projects during the Cold War?
BIG SCIENCE.
What social phenomena intersected with the history of science and technology after WWII?
Consumer Culture and the Cold War.
What significant consumer product was introduced in 1955?
Microwave oven.
Who was the first startup to commercialize computers in 1951?
Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation.
What were the primary buyers of computers in the 1950s?
- Government
- Universities
- Insurance companies
- Industrial giants
What was a directive in the Soviet Union regarding computing during the Cold War?
Overtake and surpass Western computing.
Who developed the first Soviet electronic computer, MESM?
Sergey Lebedev.
What was the main problem with the Soviet computer industry by the 1970s?
It lagged behind the West.
What was SAGE in the context of the US military-industrial complex?
IBM AN/FSQ 7.
What was the role of education and training in US Cold War strategy?
Influenced by private training, academic conferences, and early publications.
What technological development did ARPANET pioneer?
Packet-switching technology.
What event marked the beginning of the Space Race?
Launch of Sputnik in 1957.
What was the Apollo-Soyuz Mission?
A mission that created an international docking system for spacecraft in 1975.
What was the purpose of the Apollo program’s lunar missions?
- Lunar field geology investigations
- Collection of surface material samples
- Photography of deep-space phenomena
What was the first probe to soft-land on Mars?
Soviet Mars 3.
What was Ronald Reagan’s policy aim during the 1980s regarding the Soviet Union?
Contain and reverse Soviet expansionism.
What did the expansion of military spending in the 1980s force the Soviet Union to do?
Keep pace despite their stagnant economy.
What film led to the Computer Security Act of 1987?
WarGames (1983).
What were the key aspects of the Cold War?
The Cold War was characterized by bipolarity (East vs. West), proxy wars, mutual assured destruction (MAD), and competition and cooperation between the US and the Soviet Union.
How did science and technology play a central role during the Cold War?
Science and technology were central to the Cold War through innovations in defense, space exploration, computing, and the development of nuclear weapons.
What was the role of cybernetics in Soviet computing during the Cold War?
Soviet cybernetics, developed in the late 1940s, focused on comparing human brain functions to electronic computers, aiming to close the technological gap with the West.
