Pilot: A Step toward Man-Computer Symbiosis

So I have begun to read this thesis by Warren Teitelman entitled "Pilot: A Step toward Man-Computer Symbiosis".

I am just starting it, but this paragraph about synergetic systems was begging for a blog quote. (pay attention to the last sentence)

The most important point about the systems described above, a point which also applies to PILOT, is not so much that they are symbiotic, i.e., cooperative, as that they are synergetic. Synergism is the cooperative action of discrete agencies such that the total effect is greater than the sum of the two effects taken independently. An example of this is the action of penicillin and streptomycin when taken together. The extreme potentcy of the combination of tranquilizers and alcohol presents another, more familiar example.

emphasis in the original.

ha! re-read that last sentence again!

MIT must have been a fun/interesting place in the 60's!

Its not a familiar combination to me, is it to any of my readers?