The Thinking Machine is a 1968 educational film from the Bell Telephone Company (Bell System) that shows the development of “thinking machines,” or computers. The film uses animations to show how a computer’s memory, information processing, and recognition processes work, which complements the look the film takes at the current usage and abilities of computers. The film opens with clips of various computers from science fiction movies and television shows. A short animation shows a computer discussing its ability to think and remember. The film uses more animations to show early man counting with stones, an abacus, and other methods of counting developed over the centuries. A modern computer uses tapes to recall information (03:53). An MIT computer plays a game of chess against a man (05:12), performing logic operations to determine its next move. The film then shows an office of the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company and the computers inside it (06:37). A scientist at a Bell Telephone laboratory designs a light circuit on a touch-screen computer (07:48). A woman stands in a large room with what appear to be computer servers (11:00). The film shows some of the early images and music produced on a computer. The film concludes with men and women sitting at computers and entering data as well as a shot of a computer’s rotating storage space filled with magnetic tape rolls.