Alice Mary Hilton
{{short description|British-American mathematician, academic and author}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Alice Mary Hilton
| alma_mater = University of Oxford
UCLA
| workplaces = Sorbonne University
Columbia University
| birth_place = Vienna
| birth_date = June 18, 1919
| death_date = August 10, 2011
| death_place = Manhattan
| known_for = Cyberculture
The Triple Revolution
}}Alice Mary Hilton (June 18, 1919 - August 10, 2011) was a British-American academic and author. She coined the term cyberculture in 1963. She served as president of The Institute for Cybercultural Research, which she founded, and of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science.
Early life and education
Hilton was born in Vienna to Frederick O. Hilton and Thea von Weber.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} She studied classics, comparative literature and mathematics at the University of Oxford. She went on to earn a PhD in electrical engineering at University of California, Los Angeles.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5qfAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22that+way+of+life+made+possible+when+an+entire+process+of+production+is+carried+out+by+systems+of+machines+monitored+and+controlled+by+one+computer%22&pg=PA217|title=University of Michigan Official Publication|date=1964|publisher=UM Libraries|language=en}} Here she took courses in mathematics. She was a postdoctoral scholar in the Sorbonne University, the Claremont Graduate University and Columbia University.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}
Career
At first Hilton was optimistic that new technologies could help to eliminate poverty and cheap labour focused on repetitive tasks, but she became more wary of technology and increasingly pessimistic in the late 1960s as a result of the Vietnam War growing social unrest of that period. In 1963 Hilton created the term cyberculture.{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec531dbang/2011/06/18/alice-mary-hilton-the-originator-of-cyberculture/|title=Diana Bang's ETEC 531 e-portfolio » Alice Mary Hilton: the Originator of Cyberculture|access-date=2019-02-23}} Cyberculture was defined by Hilton as "that way of life made possible when an entire process of production is carried out by systems of machines monitored and controlled by one computer". She described how, in the era of cyberculture, "plows pull themselves and the fried chickens fly right onto our plates".{{Cite journal|last=Barnes|first=Robert F.|date=June 1973|title=Alice Mary Hilton. Logic, computing machines, and automation. Spartan Books, Washington, D.C., and Cleaver-Hume Press, London, 1963, xxi + 427 pp.|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-symbolic-logic/article/hilton-alice-mary-logic-computing-machines-and-automation-spartan-books-washington-dc-and-cleaverhume-press-london-1963-xxi-427-pp/9DB8FC6A8BD26735A686BE944E097966|journal=The Journal of Symbolic Logic|language=en|volume=38|issue=2|pages=341–342|doi=10.2307/2272108|issn=0022-4812|jstor=2272108|s2cid=124534674 }}{{Cite web|url=https://warontherocks.com/2016/07/digging-into-the-archeology-of-the-future/|title=Digging into the Archeology of the Future|date=2016-07-11|website=War on the Rocks|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-23}} In the early 1960s Hilton published as series of essays entitled the Age of Cyberculture.{{Cite book|last=Hilton|first=Alice Mary|title=Proceedings of the April 21-23, 1964, spring joint computer conference on XX - AFIPS '64 (Spring) |chapter=An ethos for the age of cyberculture |date=1964|series=AFIPS '64 (Spring)|location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=ACM|pages=139–153|doi=10.1145/1464122.1464136|s2cid=36239061}} She described how computers could someday become conscious, and that the interactions that take place in a human body could be performed by human-made circuits.{{Cite journal|last=Hilton|first=Alice Mary|date=1963-04-12|title=Letter to the Editor|journal=Science|language=en|volume=140|issue=3563|pages=213–214|doi=10.1126/science.140.3563.213|issn=0036-8075|pmid=17819848}} Her first book, Logic, Computing Machines and automation was read by Bertrand Russell.{{Cite web|url=https://cs.nyu.edu/pipermail/fom/2010-April/014512.html|title=[FOM] Did Goedel's result come as a surprise to Bertrand Russell|last=Irving|date=April 2, 2010|access-date=2019-02-23}} She wrote about the need for science teachers to the dangers of modern science and technology, as well as their potential to build a new world.{{Cite journal|journal=The Science Teacher|volume=40|issue=2|pages=34–40|jstor = 24123315|last1 = Hilton|first1 = Alice Mary|title=Cybernetics and Cybernation|year=1973}} She maintained that a curriculum needed to be developed for the technological future.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQFzAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22alice+Mary+Hilton%22+optimist&pg=PA877|title=Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies|last=Kridel|first=Craig|date=2010-02-16|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=9781452265766|language=en}}
"A new age is being born. In this century, humanity must prepare for the emerging cyberculture. Never has humanity had to make so many profound decisions in so short a time. Never has great civilisation been so attainable. Never has harmonious balance been so remote and never has balance been so desperately needed. The cybercultural revolution can create a world where machine systems produce undreamed of abundance, and where human beings live human lives, free to pursue human tasks."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e0zqrH6qrb0C&dq=%22Alice+Mary+Hilton%22&pg=PA125|title=Toward Human Emergence: A Human Resource Philosophy for the Future|last=Harris|first=Phil|date=2009|publisher=Human Resource Development|isbn=9781599961675|language=en}}In an article in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Hilton discussed the future of work in a world of automation.{{Cite web|url=https://soundcloud.com/studsterkel-radio-archive/sets/dr-alice-mary-hilton-talks-about-cybernetics-and-the-future-19650712|title=Dr. Alice Mary Hilton talks about "Cybernetics and the Future"; 1965/07/12|website=SoundCloud|language=en|access-date=2019-02-23}} She was the first to point out that civil liberties, human rights and the economy are part of the cyberculture. She emphasised the needs for a "pattern for a world of leisure and abundance". She wrote about the need for an Ethos for the Age of Cyber Culture and for government involvement to develop a good cybercultural society.{{Cite book|last=Hilton|first=Alice Mary|title=Proceedings of the April 21-23, 1964, spring joint computer conference on XX - AFIPS '64 (Spring) |chapter=An ethos for the age of cyberculture |date=1964|pages=139|location=New York, New York, USA|publisher=ACM Press|doi=10.1145/1464122.1464136|s2cid=36239061}} She delivered lectures on "The Human Spirit and the Cybercultural Revolution" around the United States.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/indextoamericanw0000mann|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/indextoamericanw0000mann/page/149 149]|quote=the cybercultural revolution hilton.|title=Index to American Women Speakers, 1828-1978|last=Manning|first=Beverley|date=1980|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810812826|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/indextoamericanw0000mann|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/indextoamericanw0000mann/page/439 439]|quote=the human spirit and the cybercultural revolution.|title=Index to American Women Speakers, 1828-1978|last=Manning|first=Beverley|date=1980|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810812826|language=en}} In 1964 Hilton founded The Institute for Cybercultural Research.{{Cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E1D9103AF937A2575BC0A9679D8B63|title=Paid Notice: Deaths HILTON, ALICE MARY, PH.D.|website=query.nytimes.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-23}} The Institute for Cybercultural Research was a forum for the exchange of ideas about science and the future of work.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qlBCTlVq_0EC&dq=Society+for+Social+Responsibility+in+Science+mary+hilton&pg=PA93|title=Disrupting Science: Social Movements, American Scientists, and the Politics of the Military, 1945-1975|last=Moore|first=Kelly|date=2009-04-11|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400823802|language=en}} The institute considered the immediate problems that might arise from the acceleration of technology and the need for ethics to be at the heart of new working conditions, as well as serving as a reliable source of information to government.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MIa-RJc55x0C&dq=The+Institute+for+Cybercultural+Research&pg=PA74|title=Ventures in Social Interpretation|last=Winthrop|first=Henry|date=1968|publisher=Ardent Media|language=en}}
Hilton was a signatory on The Triple Revolution, a memorandum sent to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, to share concerns about "the cybernation generation".{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isr/vol25/no03/adhoc.html|title=Ad Hoc Committee: The Triple Revolution (Summer 1964)|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=2019-02-23}} Hilton was one of two women signatories, the other being Frances W. Herring, a Professor of Government at University of California, Berkeley who led the 1961 Women Strike for Peace. In Cybernation and Civil Rights, a chapter in The Evolving Society, Hilton and Victor Paschkis called for an evaluation of what it meant to call machines intelligent.{{Cite book|title=The evolving Society : the proceedings of the first annual conference on the cybercultural revolution-cybernetics and automation|last=Mary.|first=Hilton, Alice|date=1966|oclc=637680647}} Paschkis, a mechanical engineer and Quaker, was the founder of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science.{{Cite web|url=http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/Peace%20in%20Friends/PeaceTest_P_Z.htm|title=Peace Testimony Archival: P-Z|website=www.swarthmore.edu|access-date=2019-02-23}} Hilton was described as "outstanding authority on computing machines and automation".{{Citation|title=6. Building for the Mind III Barnard College and Teachers College— Women's Education on Morningside Heights|date=1998-01-31|work=Morningside Heights|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231534819|doi=10.7312/dolk07850-007}} In 1968 Hilton was made the vice president of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science. She became increasingly concerned for the underfed and under privileged in the developing world.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=azwQStEZq-8C&dq=alice+mary+hilton&pg=PA638|title=New Scientist|date=1971-09-16|publisher=Reed Business Information|language=en}} She called for more to be done by socially conscious scientists.
In subsequent decades, she turned her attention to the mathematical history of architecture, with a focus on medieval cathedrals.{{Cite news |date=1981-04-19 |title=HOW TO READ THE GREAT CATHEDRALS OF EUROPE |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/19/travel/how-to-read-the-great-cathedrals-of-europe.html |access-date=2022-10-28 |issn=0362-4331}}
Hilton died in Manhattan on August 10, 2011.
= Books =
- {{cite book|title=Against pollution and hunger : [proceedings of the International conference on pollution control, convened by the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, Trondheim, 1971]|last=Hilton |first=Alice Mary|date=1974|publisher=Universitetsforlaget|oclc=489187967}}
- {{cite book|year=1967 |title=The social implications of mechanization, automation, and cybernation in agriculture|last=Hilton |first=Alice Mary|oclc=63619902}}
- {{cite book|year=1966 |title=The Evolving Society: The Proceedings of the First Annual Conference on the Cybercultural Revolution – Cybernetics and Automation}}
- {{cite book|quote=Logic, Computing Machines, and Automation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RhwhAQAAIAAJ&dq=alice+mary+hilton+Frederick+O.+Hilton&pg=PA388|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1963: January–June|date=1964|publisher=Copyright Office, Library of Congress|language=en}}
References
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Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Austrian emigrants to the United Kingdom