Computers In Society Essay, Research Paper
Kenny Rogers
Mr. Laiman
October 14, 2001
Computers
Computers have been around for thousands of years. When you think of computers you probably
only think of the one at your house or at the library. You usually don’t think about the computers
that were used long ago. They were simple, but they were the beginning to what we have today.
Through the years computers progressed and we were able to accomplish more and more. Our
lives have been impacted greatly because of what we can do with computers today. There is so
much more that the future holds in the advancement in computers. We probably can’t even
imagine some of the stuff that we will be able to do. I think that computers are one of the greatest
inventions because they have enhanced our lives so much and they have helped us accomplish
things that we would have never thought could have been accomplished.
Let’s start of by talking about the history of computers and how they came about. About two
thousand years ago, originating in Egypt, the abacus was invented. This is considered to be the
first computer ever made. This device was made up of a wooden rack that held two wires. Beads
were placed on the wires where they could slide up and down. This machine could only do
simple math
problems, but it was a start and the beginning of one of the greatest inventions. Nothing else
regarding the advancement of these type devices was invented until almost twelve centuries later.
In 1642, Blaise Pascal invented a machine that would help his father, a tax collector, to keep
track of his work. This machine consisted of eight dials which would do addition and count
numbers. This is how it worked: Once you turned the first dial all the way around once it would
then turn the second dial one place. Once the second dial made it around one time the third dial
would then move one place. This sequence repeated for each of the eight dials (Computers:
History and Development 2).
Gottfried Wilhem von Leibniz improved what Pascal had done by making a machine that could
not only add, but also multiply. This machine basically ran the same way that Pascal’s did. An
arithometer was developed by Charles Xavier Thomas in 1820. This was the first machine that
could finally do the four basic math problems. Up until the First World War, many people used
this arithometer.
Soon after the invention of the arithometer, Charles Babbage Invented what was called the
Difference Engine. This machine was powered by huge amounts of steam. The Difference
Engine would have a program that would be stored and it could calculate and print the results.
Babbage worked on his Difference engine for several years. While he was working on it he had
the idea to start working on the
first general-purpose computer. This he called the Analytical Engine and it became the basis for
computers, as we know them today.
The design of modern day computers started when the government thought they would be very
helpful with the beginning of the Second World War. The first one of the computers built was
the Z3, developed by Konrad Zuse in 1941, which was used to design missiles and airplanes.
Another computer that was developed because of the war was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer). This was a huge computer that used 18,000 vacuum tubes, had some
70,000 resistors, and about five million soldered joints. It took 160 kilowatts of electricity to
power this computer. That’s enough electricity to dim the lights in an entire section of a large
city. The ENIAC was about 1000 times faster than previous computers.
The next major step for developing computers was the transistor. This replaced the huge vacuum
tubes that were previously used. By having these smaller transistors, the size of computers was
reduced greatly. These also made the computer much faster and more reliable also. The only
negative quality of transistors was that they produce a great amount of heat which would damage
the other parts on the inside of the computer. The integrated circuit would replace the transistor
in 1958. Created by Jack Kilby, the integrated circuit was made up of a silicon disc made of
quartz which contained three electronic components. The development of the integrated circuit
reduced the size of computers even more.
The more components that were put on a chip, the smaller the computer became.
The next project for computers was to keep decreasing the size. This brought about the
development large-scale integration (LSI). This is when hundreds of components were put on
one chip. Very large scale integration (VLSI) was developed by the 1980’s. This is when
thousands of components were put on one chip. Next was ultra-large scale integration (ULSI).
This fit millions of components on one chip. Not only did these types of integration make the
computer smaller, they also improved efficiency, reliability, and power.
The 1980’s brought about the personal computer for the home. Anyone could purchase these
affordable computers. After the development of these personal computers, laptops were
developed which were even smaller than the personal computers. Shortly after, in 1992, the
Internet was available to anyone who owns a personal computer (A Brief History of Computers).
The Internet links computers all over the world to one network, which allows people to
communicate over the computer. This brings us to where we are in the computer world today
(Computers: History and Development).
The development of computers has enhanced the quality of our lives greatly. You probably don’t
even think about many of the things computers are used for accept for having fun and playing on
the Internet. Since we have invented computers the reliability and production of many products
has been
increased. Some examples of this are car production, the heating and cooling in our homes, and
also the production of our food and how it is stored until we buy it. These have all been
improved by computers. The quality of life we live now is so much greater than people years ago
ever could have imagined. We even have the technology through computers to help people
livelonger.
There has also been a social impact that computers have had on our society. Communication has
advanced greatly since the development of the Internet. There was a survey given to people of
news groups and others that were on electronic mailing lists to see what people thought about
face-to-face communication compared to on-line communication. Most people thought that
communicating on-line was much different than communicating in person. This survey showed
that women were treated much better when communicating on-line. Men said that sexist thoughts
were diminished when talking to women on the Internet and women said that the were able to
speak their minds. So there is somewhat of an advantage to communicating on-line (Meadahl
22). These examples have shown how the computer has had an enormous impact on world. They
have made our lives hundreds of times easier than they would have been without computers.
What does the future hold for computers? Some of the things that people say are unreal. We have
almost made it to the point to where computers are good enough to understand what we say. So
far people have been working on ways to
use computers just by talking using a vocabulary of maybe one hundred to two hundred words. It
would be nice just to be able to say “back” and you would get a backspace. Also there has been
ideas of physical communication over the Internet. This would consist of someone having a
device for their hands that they would squeeze in certain places. The person at the other end
would have this same type of device that would be able to received the motions of the other
person. At some point people will probably get computers to think for themselves. They will be
able to understand words and what they mean and what ideas they represent. Connecting to the
Internet with an implant in our bodies is not too far off either. We can already implant a
telephone right behind the ear and the facial bones are used as conduction. It would be nice to
have a calculator implanted or even a memory enhancer. Many people would love to have a
computer that monitors their health implanted into their body (The Startling Future of Computers
4 – 32). These are just some of the examples of what has been planned for the future. As these
goals are being accomplished, new ones will be set and take us farther along in computer
technology.
Computer’s have been an important part of our lives. We have come a long way with computers.
The first one being developed around two thousand years ago and we progressed from there to
what we have today: personal computers, laptops, and the Internet. Our lives have been affected
greatly by the development of computers. They do many jobs more accurately and reliably than
any human
could ever do. They help with just about any job we have to accomplish. We have come so far in
our technology, yet so much is still in store for us that it is hard to believe. We will be able to
operate a computer just by using our voice, we may be able to communicate physically by using
the Internet, and also connect to the Internet by tiny implants in our body. This shows how
important technology is to us and we should continue to pursue bigger and better things with our
computers.
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