dsandler.org/wp

Todd has discovered what seems to be apocryphal, or at least somewhat
suspicious, content in the Alice & Bob speech I mentioned.

From: Todd Thomas
Subject: Hmmm...
Date: 05 Nov 2003 10:22:46 -0700

Thanks for the link to the "Alice And Bob After Dinner" speech -- it has
the funny. I noticed something odd about it, though: the title section
claims the speech was delivered in April, 1984, but in the section
headed "The Modern World" Gordon makes reference to a film called "The
Labyrinth" and to "Dolby Digital Decaphonic surround sound".

Now I initially assumed the film referred to was the one officially
titled "Labyrinth",
featuring David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connelly, which we all know
and love. But according to imdb, that film came out in 1986. Now it's
possible that film was in production in spring 1984, but at that point
it probably didn't have its final title, or if it did, it probably
wouldn't have been known publically. imdb informs me that there have
been several other films named "Labyrinth" or "The Labyrinth" which
predate 1984, but they comprise a German film, a 3 minute animation, and
two American silent films (maybe *that's* the joke -- my knowledge of
the early history of cinema is not great).

And as for Dolby
Digital, in 1984 it was at best just a gleam in the eye of a Dolby
engineer. This is my reasonably intelligent guess, anyway, seeing as how
the CD had been first introduced only two years prior. Now analog Dolby
surround probably existed at the time (I haven't done the research, but
I saw that it was used for the soundtrack of "Labyrinth" [1986]), so
Gordon may have simply extrapolated based on the by then obvious trends
in technology.

But these apparent discrepancies do leave me wondering about the
correctness of the stated date of the speech, or the authenticity of
that particular transcription. I did a quick search for other copies,
and found one
that also claims the April, 1984 date, but elides all the text found at
the link you gave beyond, "A coding theorist is someone who doesn't
think Alice is crazy."

---

Addendum: From A History
of Dolby Laboratories:

"The first Dolby digital coding
system, Dolby AC-1, was introduced in 1984. It was adopted beginning in
1985 in a number of direct satellite broadcast and cable distribution
systems."

So it's possible Gordon had heard the exact phrase "Dolby Digital" in
1984, though it's a close shave.

I don’t think Todd is crazy, either. It’s definitely a little weird. I guess
you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet (any more than you can
believe it isn’t the government on the other end of your noisy telephone).

Of interest: History of multichannel sound, from Dolby.com.