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May 19, 2025
From Hal to Siri: How Computers Learned to Speak
A Discussion with Benjamin Lindquist
Summary
Today we learn how computers learned to talk with Benjamin Lindquist, a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University’s Science in Human Culture program. Ben is the author “The Art of Text to Speech,” which recently appeared in Critical Inquiry, and he’s currently writing a history of text-to-speech computing.
In this conversation, we explore:
- the fascinating backstory to HAL 9000, the speaking computer in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: a Space Odyssey
- 2001’s strong influence on computer science and the cultural reception of computers
- the weird technology of the first talking computers and their relationship to optical film soundtracks
- Louis Gerstman, the forgotten innovator who first made an IBM mainframe sing “Daisy Bell.”
- why the phonemic approach of Stephen Hawking’s voice didn’t make it into the voice of Siri
- the analog history of digital computing and the true differences between analog and digital
Your Host
Mack Hagood
Mack Hagood is the Robert H. and Nancy J. Blayney Associate Professor of Comparative Media Studies at Miami University, Ohio, where he studies digital media, sound technologies, disability, and popular music.
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