Cyberpunk 1958: The Early Days of the Polish IT Industry

It's fascinating to have a glimpse into a parallel history of computing that happened in a small country without the resources to make it big, but with tireless efforts of brilliant mathematicians and engineers who made the advancements against the odds.

If the history ran along a parallel path, I wonder what could have been different and what would have ended up exactly the same.

For the PL nerds who are curious about Loglan, check out: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrzej-Salwicki/public...

I found this YouTube channel about the MERA-400, complete with interviews with its designer [0]. Unfortunately, it is all in Polish.

[0] https://youtube.com/@mera400

> as the inefficiency of the centralisation efforts meant that it was met with delays and a lack of coordination.

Starting in 1981, I lived through the evolution of "personal computers" and have worked in the startup side of high tech most of my career. Even in the U.S. it was hard to create a successful, sustainable business in computing. I can't even imagine trying to do the same in the Eastern block with central planning, lack of ecosystem and myriad other challenges. Here in the U.S. there was a rueful saying in tech that "sometimes the better product doesn't win" but it was a saying because it was usually an exception. At least there was a general expectation that better products would win. It's kind of tragic how much engineering talent went to waste or was never utilized behind the iron curtain.

A little over 20 years ago I visited Warsaw for a few days and, of course, sought out the technology museum. I think I may have been the only visitor while I was there. Every large hall had a dedicated guard sitting in a chair, who mostly looked like retired pensioners. I felt bad because I woke up a lot of nice people just walking quietly through. The museum was mostly focused on industrial, manufacturing and agricultural technology but there was quite an extensive computer hall and it was chock full of fascinating mainframe and mini-looking systems I'd never seen, even in pictures. I was surprised that, other than terminals, there was little in the way of desktop or home computers. Thinking about it I realized that circa 2000, Poland's early desktop and home computers were probably still in use and a few years away from museum fodder. The only bad part was there was virtually no info in English (at least back then) and no mobile phone translate apps.

It’s not mentioned but the ODRA 1300s were ICT/ICL 1900 compatibles, pretty far from the Western state of the art (circa early 1960s).