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Computers and Society: Historical Review

Computers and Society: Historical Review. Kathy E. Gill 7 October 2003. Overview. History of computing technology History of the Internet Communications Theories. Quotable 1.

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Computers and Society: Historical Review

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  1. Computers and Society: Historical Review Kathy E. Gill 7 October 2003

  2. Overview • History of computing technology • History of the Internet • Communications Theories

  3. Quotable 1 "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -- Western Union internal memo, 1876

  4. Quotable 2 Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? -- H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

  5. Quotable 3 "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

  6. Quotable 4 "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechanics, 1949

  7. Quotable 5 "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981 *

  8. What is “technology”? • tech-nol-o-gy [Gk] 1: technical language; 2a: applied science b: a technical method of achieving a practical purpose 3: a totality of the means employed to provide objects necessary for human sustenance and comfort

  9. Technology • Knowledge used to solve problems and extend human potential. • Technology is about enabling change and amplifying its direction. Technology does not set the sail.

  10. Technology and Media • Caves in France • Paper and charcoal/ink • Printing Press • Telegraph et al (radio, television) • Computer mediated communications

  11. Ancient History • 8500 BC : Bone carved with prime numbers discovered • 1000 – 500 BC : Abacus invented • 1500 : da Vinci’s mechanical calculator • 1642 : Blaise Pascal, 1st adding device • 1714 : 1st English typewriter patent • 1801 : Joseph Jacquard, weaving looms • 1st to mechanically control device operations sequence • 1822 : Charles Babbage, Father of the Modern Computer and Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace

  12. An eccentric British mathematician and inventor Difference Engine, calculated and printed mathematical tables; 1822 Analytical Engine, the first device considered a computer in the modern sense of the word Planned to use loops of Jacquard’s punch cards to control an automatic calculator, which could then make decisions based on the results of previous computations. Charles Babbage

  13. Analytical Engine, 1858

  14. Ada Byron • 1843 : she predicted that Babbage’s “analytical engine” might be used to compose music and produce graphics and would be used for both practical and scientific use • She described how Babbage’s engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. Her plan is regarded as the first “computer program.” • Ada, the first ISO-standardized OO programming language; developed by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1979.

  15. Modern History (1/3) • 1937 : Alan Turing, Turing Machine • Theoretical model of a computer • 1938 : Claude Shannon’s Master’s Thesis • “possibly the most important of the 20th century” • Showed how Boole’s concepts of True and False could be used to represent functions of switches (binary)

  16. Modern History (2/3) • 1939-1944 : Howard Aiken • Harvard Mark I, 1st large scale digital computer (IBM Automatic Sequence Control Calculator) • Used Electromagnetic Relays • 1943 : Alan Turing & COLOSSUS • WWII machine designed to break German code • 1800 vacuum tubes • Earliest working programmable electronic digital computer

  17. Modern History (3/3) • 1943-1946 : ENIAC • 1st fully Electronic Computer • 18,000 vacuum tubes; 10’ tall, 1000 sq ft of floor space, weighed ~30 tons • 1945 : first computer “bug” (literally!) • 1949 : John VonNeumann • Consultant on Manhattan Project • Paper : all basic elements of a stored program computer

  18. First Commercial Computers • 1951 : 1st Computer Sold to U.S. Bureau of Census - UNIVAC I • 1954 : 1st Computer Sold to Private Corp., General Electric Company - UNIVAC I

  19. Recent History (1/4) • 1957 : FORTRAN • 1st high-level programming language • 1959 : COBOL • Common Business Oriented Language • 1961 : John F. Kennedy, Space Program

  20. Recent History (2/4) • 1964 : BASIC • Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code • 1975 : Bill Gates & Paul Allen, Microsoft • 1976 : Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniack, Apple • 1977 : Commodore “PET” computer

  21. Recent History (3/4) • 1979 : 1st “killer app” • 1st Electronic Spreadsheet - VisiCalc • 1980 : PC DOS • 1981 : IBM - PC • 1983 : Apple Macintosh Computer (GUI) • 1984 : Laser Printers for PCs • High quality affordable printing

  22. Recent History (4/4) • 1984 : CD-ROMS • 1990s : Communications & Multimedia • Audio • Video • Internet - WWW Browsers

  23. Categories of Computers • Mainframes and PCs that run application software • Embedded chips that control machines

  24. 1st Generation 1945-1956 • Made to order operating instructions • Binary coded programs told it how to operate • Difficult to program; limited versatility and speed

  25. 2nd Generation 1955-1963 • Assembly language • Printers and memory • Programming languages • Careers

  26. 3rd Generation 1964 - 1971 • Quartz clock • Integrated circuit • Operating systems

  27. 4th Generation 1971 - now • LSI - Large Scale Integration • VLSI - Very Large Scale Integration • Chip • General consumer usage (ubiquitous computing) • Networks

  28. 5th Generation ? • What will it be like? • What changes will be big enough to create this new generation?

  29. Technology advances at exponential rates • Memory capacity quadruples every 3 years • Processor speed doubles every 3 years • Number of hosts doubles every year • Chip transistor densities double every 18 months at constant prices (Moore’s Law)

  30. Computers and Networks • Facilitate • Concentration of knowledge and control • Distribution of knowledge and control • Have the power to • Amass and interrogate enormous volumes of data • Process data at enormous rates for real systems and simulations

  31. Computers and Networks Challenge: • Constitutional definitions • Social structures • Lifestyle options • None more challenging than “the Net”

  32. Internet History • 1964 - Rand Corporation Plan for dealing with military and government communications… in the event of a • “NUCLEAR WAR”

  33. National Network with No Central Authority

  34. ARPANET (Rand, MIT, UCLA) • 1969 : 1st node on the Internet • 1971 : 15 nodes • 1982 : TCP/IP

  35. Picking Up Speed • 1987 : Apple’s Hypertext • 1991 : Tim Berners-Lee at European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva conceived the World Wide Web • 1993 : National Center for Supercomputing Applications [NCSA] - University of Illinois created a WWW browser named Mosiac

  36. Faster... faster... faster • April 94 : Mosaic Communications [Clark & Andreesen] • Oct 94 : Netscape Beta Released • Nov 94 : Mosaic Co ==> Netscape • Aug 9, 1995 : Netscape IPO

  37. Internet Hosts • 1971 : 15 • 1981 : 213 • 1985 : 1,961 • 1990 : 313,000 • 1994 : 3,864,000 • 1996 : 9,472,000 • 2003 : 171,638,297 • http://www.isc.org/ds/host-count-history.html

  38. Education Transportation Private Sector Business Government Entertainment Housing Currency (banking) Jobs Space Medicine Anything else? Parts of a Society

  39. The Net and Society • In recent years this one area has affected society more than any other • How? • What are the issues?

  40. What is communication? • The imparting, conveying or exchanging of ideas, knowledge, etc • The transfer of thoughts and messages by sign and sounds

  41. Communication theories • Linear or Transmission (Shannon-Weaver, 1948; Lasswell, 1960) • Circular (Osgood and Schramm, 1954) • Medium Theory (McLuhan et al)

  42. Shannon-Weaver (1/3) • Information theory is “exceedingly general in scope, fundamental in the problems it treats, and of classic simplicity and power in the results it reaches”(Shannon & Weaver, 1949) • Theory of signal transmission

  43. Shannon-Weaver (2/3)

  44. Redundancy is used to offset noise in a channel Noise increases uncertainty What is noise in interactive media? Shannon-Weaver (3/3)

  45. Osgood and Schramm (1/2) • Importance of “meaning” • One person can be sender and receiver (feedback) • Stresses social nature of communication

  46. Osgood and Schramm (2/2)

  47. Who (sender) Says What (message) In What Channel (medium or channel) To Whom (receiver) With What Effect (impact) Lasswell Formula

  48. Medium Theory Assumes… • A process of standardization, such as specific historical eras (e.g. oral, print, and electronic) • Relational "effects” on consciousness (e.g. "print creates linearity”) • Society is simply a reverberation of the medium From Towards an Ecology of Understanding: Semiotics, Medium Theory, and the Uses of Meaning http://www.imageandnarrative.be/mediumtheory/marcleverette.htm

  49. Interactive Communication • Interaction between • senders and receivers • humans and machines • a message and its consumers

  50. Questions?

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