The year is 1956. You’re a researcher working at International Business Machines, the world’s leading tabulating machine company, which has recently diversified into the brand-new field of electronic computers. You have been tasked with determining for what purposes, exactly, your customers are using IBM’s huge mainframes.

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The answer turns out to be pretty simple: computers are for the military, and for the military alone. In 1955, the year before, by far the biggest single revenue source for IBM’s computer division was the SAGE Project, a Defense Department initiative tasking IBM with creating

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