1 / 22

CS 305 Social, Ethical, and Legal Implications of Computing Chapter 1 History of Computing

Herbert G. Mayer, PSU CS status 6/24/2012 Most slides derived from prof. Wu-Chang Feng Slides 15..19 copied from prof. Harrison + Massey. CS 305 Social, Ethical, and Legal Implications of Computing Chapter 1 History of Computing. Syllabus. Impact of Technology Controlling Technology

lane
Download Presentation

CS 305 Social, Ethical, and Legal Implications of Computing Chapter 1 History of Computing

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Herbert G. Mayer, PSU CS status 6/24/2012 Most slides derived from prof. Wu-Chang Feng Slides 15..19 copied from prof. Harrison + Massey CS 305Social, Ethical, and LegalImplications of ComputingChapter 1History of Computing

  2. Syllabus • Impact of Technology • Controlling Technology • History of Computing • History of Communications • Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data • History of Programming Languages • History of Information Storage • Discussion for Students

  3. Impact of Technology • Technology impacts society, us, often in unforeseen ways • Examples: • Candle light  allowed us to work during hours of darkness • Invention of automobile solved transportation problems • created new ones, e.g. emissions problems, traffic deaths • but reduced the number of horse-back accidents • Digital photography eliminated chemical photography, dark rooms • bankrupted a whole industry; e.g. Kodak’s bankruptcy issues • E-mail reduced US Mail volume • Laptop computers made it handy to travel with your computer • increased neck- and back pain • Cell phones; made users feel connected, safer • Refrigerators allowed foods to last longer • freon impacted the ozone layer • Internet vastly enhanced communication

  4. Controlling Technology • Mankind, laws, dictatorships, restrictions etc. cannot really “control” inventions, but can influence the speed of deployment, or general acceptance • Nuclear power • P2P networks • Gun control • Amish • Adopting new technologies affects how people relate • Bishops meet twice a year to determine which ones to allow • Cars? No! Create more hectic life, causes danger, pollutes • Gas barbeque? Yes, brings people closer together • Telephone? No, reduces face to face communication

  5. Focus: Computer Technology

  6. History of Computing • Manual Calculators • 10 fingers: limited numeric range, fails to work in cold weather • Abacus, base 5 and 10: works well with small numbers • Mechanical Calculators • Pascal (~1643)‏ adder, invented at age 20! • Leibnitz (~1660) four function calculator • Burroughs (1890s)‏, thought a few units saturate total market • Charles Babbage (1810) Difference Engine, aborted for AE • Babbage’s Analytical Engine (AE) 1835, also never completed • Other Calculating Devices • Bouchon, Falcon, Jacques (~1710-1750) punched cards to program repeated weaving patterns • John Atanasoff (~1939) Iowa state prof. builds first digital computer • Konrad Zuse (~1940) builds first relais-based digital computer with real programming language (Plankalkül)

  7. History of Computing • Computing Innovations • Guthrie (~1873) and Edison (~1883) invent vacuum tubes that can be used as switching device • Cash register - Ritty (early 1900s)‏ • Prevent embezzlement via itemized receipts and printed logs • Track tax collected • Hollerith (~1900) punch card tabulation for census‏ • Presper Eckert and John Mauchly (~1944) build Electronic computer ENIAC • based on Atanasoff’s ideas‏ • Final US patent granted to Atanasoff in 1980s

  8. History of Computing: UNIVAC • ENIAC was basis for UNIVAC product, commercially not successful • Acquired ~1950 by Remington Rand, thus was born the first commercially successful computer corporation • Used to count votes, predict outcome of 1952 presidential election • Predicted Adlai Stevenson lead over Dwight Eisenhower in polls before election close • UNIVAC accurately predicted (with 7% of the vote counted) that Eisenhower would win in a landslide • Computer programmers of UNIVAC mistrusted their program, modified it to tilt the results more in favor of Stevenson • CBS reported the erroneous result instead of the genuine, original computation • Original prediction was accurate! • Other companies successful at building general-purpose computers: IBM, CDC, NCR, Honeywell, GE, Ferranti, HP, Digital, Amdahl, Wang, …

  9. History of Computing • Programming languages • Detail later … • Transistors and integrated circuits • Bell Labs (1948)‏ • Enabled smaller, more powerful computers • With higher reliability, critical due to large number of parts • Integral in development of Minuteman II ballistic missile • Microprocessors • Intel 4004 (1969)‏ • Eventually allowed computers in everyday devices (cell phones, mp3 players, digital cameras)‏ • Today microprocessors have > 1 Billion transistors

  10. History of Communications • Telegraph • Samuel Morse (1830s)‏ • Telegraph machine based on electricity to communicate • First line between Washington D.C. and Baltimore (1844)‏ • 200k miles of wire by 1877 • Put Pony Express out of business • Most cities developed fire alarm telegraphs • Telephone • Alexander Graham Bell (1876)‏ • Transmission of human voice electronically • Eroded? Improved? Social hierarchies • Ordinary citizens calling the governor • Telemarketers call you, while you are eating dinner at home • Loss of privacy • Operators could eavesdrop on conversations

  11. History of Communications • Typewriter (1873) and teletype (1908)‏ • Electronic transmission of typed text • Radio • Marconi (1895)‏ • Used in 1912 by Titanic to signal distress • Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” (Halloween 1938)‏ • Radio play that demonstrated the power of radio to blur lines of reality • Students: was Welles acting ethically? • Television • Nipkow (1884), Farnsworth (1927)‏ • Used to broadcast Armstrong landing on the moon (1969) • Note delay! Just in case‏! Students, was the delay ethical? • Problems with junkies? • Influences elections • East coast results influence voting on the west coast

  12. History of Communications • ARPANET • Precursor to Internet • Decentralized, packet-switched data network • Led to current Internet and its applications (E-mail, WWW)‏ • Cell phones • Other gadgets: Skype, twitter, Facebook …

  13. History of Programming Languages • Some languages: • Binary coding; then asm language; then relocatable asm • High-level programming languages, and machine independent programming languages • FORTRAN (~1956) John Backus, IBM • Lisp late 1950s • BASIC (Beginner’s All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) 1963 Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny at Darthmouth • Algol-60, committee, report 1960, Backus + Naur • Cobol (COmmon Business Oriented Language) with decimal type, created by Capt. Grace Mary Hopper US Navy • APL (A Programming Language) 1950s Kenneth Iverson IBM • Algol-W, Jovial, Algol-68, various Jovial dialects • PL/I, IBM committee language, 1960, everything except kitchen sink • C, Ada, Modula-2, Prolog, C++, Java, C# • More from students …

  14. History of Information Storage • Codex • From scrolls (BC) to durable bound volumes (~200 AD)‏ • Printing press • Gutenberg (1436)‏ • Vehicle for mass communication and dissemination of information • Martin Luther and the Reformation • Instrumental in the publication and dissemination of his theses • Unified German languages into one common language • Hypertext systems • Mennex: Information retrieval where associated documents can easily be linked to others • Led to current WWW hypertext system – Berners-Lee (1990)‏ • Search engines • Yahoo, Google, etc.

  15. Storing Data Bone carvings [20,000 BC] auxiliary storage Wax Tablets [2000BC] auxiliary storage Codex [200s] from scrolls to books The Printing Press [1436+] write once, produce many Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data

  16. Paper Tape [1870s] Punched Cards [1890s] Herman Hollerith Magnetic Storage [1920s] For audio Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data

  17. Magnetic Data Tape [1951] ~10M on a 2400’ reel Sequential access Hard Disk [1956] Sequential access! SSD drives[~2005] Random access! Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data 17

  18. Acquiring Data Keyboarding [1920s] IBM card punch Optical Character Recognition [1950s] Speech Recognition [1961] Barcodes [1974] Storing Organizing, Retrieving Data 18

  19. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) [1980s] Video Recognition [1990s] Storing Organizing, Retrieving Data 19

  20. Discussion for Students • Are there technologies you wish had never been adopted? • Give examples of how new technologies require society to create new rules • Should ripping a CD of your own legal? Would it be legal to leave the digital copy on an open network share? Would it be legal to add it to a P2P sharing library? • Can Amazon sell your personal information to third-party partners? Should they be able to? • Who is liable for software failures that cause injury or death? • What are limits to workspace monitoring?

  21. Extra Discussion • Do you believe we are more connected or less connected with people today? (no brainer  ) • Does current level of connectivity render us more happy, less satisfied? frustrated? productive? • Should election polls close at the same time everywhere in the US? • Should one be prevented from posting content on the Internet that is legal in one country, but not in another?

  22. In-Class Exercise List the last three-five consumer electronic devices that someone in your acquaintance purchased • List benefits to society this has provided • To whom? How? • List a number of potentially harmful benefits the device has provided to you • How could this be harmful? List three computer applications that you believe have a huge impact on society • What benefits have they provided? • What harmful side-effects did they cause?

More Related