TL;DR -- Again, the holiday issue in 2025 of The Economist has an article that is apropos to our research. This one has a focus on "El Segundo" which is a town known to us for several reasons. Anyone going into or out of LAX flies over the town. It was a technology town for WWII and before and somewhat after. For a time, it was derelict until efforts at the real side of technology came to town with a new motto: Bits to atoms. Or is it atoms to bits? In any case, we'll feature the location regularly for a while as we take the focus from that Valley up north which is so famous.
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This is the fourth series. So far, we have looked at science, literature, and economics. Two of these were motivated by the holiday issue of The Economist this year. This post picks up the thread of technology which has been our focus for a while which became more visible with the release of GenAI/LLM (or AI/ML) three years ago. So, we will pause the usual focus and move the looking glass at culture and technology which is imperative.
Motivated, again, by this article: America’s fight back against China starts in Los Angeles—in flip-flops to be found in The Economist.
El Segundo? Of California? Los Angeles area? Near LAX? Gosh, it's about time that we mention the place. As we have had lots of posts on DTLA (Downtown Los Angeles) where we find a neighborhood with the name of Bunker Hill West where the U.S. and its 250th have a long history. And, it is technology focus that got our interest shifted.
Though, it could have been the SoCal beach culture that was the focus. We are talking about a place that is north of the more known beaches (say, those mentioned in song by the Beach Boys, Redondo Beach). Too, it's north of Long Beach. But south of the LaLa land up north starting with Venice up to Malibu. Lots of history to cover.
The new kids on the block have an adage that is important to our discussion of technology: Bits to atoms. This is interesting as a good meaning deals with grounding the work of making digital twins with something real, in the world. Turning the concept around, atoms-to-bits is interesting too in the sense of how to come of with the digital twin (MRI, CT_Scan, ...) and knowing the essential differences that ensue in order to not get lost (which seems, many times, to be of concern with the present situations with AI/ML).
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| Example: MRI |
In other words, physics and mathematics come to fore and get attention.
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Both of us have family history in the area, going back to before WWI. The technology focus will include firms in the El Segundo/Hawthorne area. Some say that the area is blue collar. The major industry were oil (Chevron) and aerospace (Douglas), and computers (Silicon Beach). As said, LAX is right there. But, Defense work was a prime contributor, too, over the years.
In terms of culture, Hawthorne is named for cousin, Nathaniel, who is also important to New England's reach. That will be a topic of a future post. Prior to WWI, the area was agricultural. By the time of WWII, the technology focus grew abound. And, looking at such ought to give us pause with respect to recent manias, but that's an old topic still under discussion with respect to the future focus that we ought to take.
Finally, stepping back to the time of New Spain and Mexico, this land was part of Rancho Sausal Redondo. Formed earlier by the new Mexican government, it was granted to the Avila family in 1837.
Remarks: Modified: 01/17/2026
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