I, Edmonton

Ever since computers were clunky, whirring machines that took up entire floors, humans have marvelled at their potential, envisioning all the ways they could help or even be like us. Tapping into our own dark nature, science fiction tends to reach what creepily feels like the natural conclusion of obscenely smart machines with human dispositions; our demise. There's no robot apocalypse on the horizon, but the revolution is well under way. It's been here, in some form, since the '60s, and it's poised to lead the city, and world, in to the future. On April 1, 1964, U of A built Canada's first Department of Computing Science around five academics, a small support staff and the LGP-30, an 800-pound, deep freeze-shaped digital computer.