The Age of Computers

807 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: impact of computer technology on society

The Age of Computers

Believe it or not, but the age of computers is upon us. I believe Computers are not only here to stay, but in my opinion computers are the wave of the future. Only a device like the computer can change the way we work, live, and think. I see computers taking us places where no man has gone before. Twenty years ago people were just not up to date with computers back then. I mean if you ask someone about a computer, they probably would say something like, what in the world our you talking about, or what the hell is a computer. Today just about anybody you ask, can tell you something about a computer. Papia Bhattacharyya , says: "Technology has bounded onto the center stage in the last few years"(59). The earliest existence of the modern day computer's ancestor is the abacus. The abacus dates back to almost 2000 years ago. It is simply a wooden rack holding beads which are strung on wires. The next step in computers took place in 1694 when Blaise Pascal invented the first digital calculating machine, which was designed to help Pascal's father who was a tax collector.

Now we look at Charles Babbage, who many say is the father of computers. Charles Babbage was a professor of mathematics. In the 1800's Babbage designed an automatic calculation machine. This machine was steam powered and could store up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Charles Babbage was so ahead of his time, that the machines that were used back then were not even precise enough to make the parts for his computer. Gulliver, states:

The first major use for a computer in the US was during the 1890 census. Two men, Herman Hollerith and James Powers, developed a new punched-card system that could automatically read information on cards without human intervention (Gulliver 82).

In the 1930's punched-card machine techniques had become so well established that Howard Hathaway Aiken, together with engineers at IBM, came up with the automatic computer called Mark I. The Mark I ran by using prepunched paper tape. The Mark I was slow, and required 3 to 5 seconds to perform multiplication.

Show More
Related

  • Interbreeding Between Neandertals and Modern Humans

    1344 Words  | 3 Pages

    The human archaeological record is a long and undefined story that may be the most complex question researched today. One of the big questions in human history is the disappearance of the Neanderthal people from the archaeological record around 30,000 BP. While for thousands of years Neanderthals and Anatomically modern humans crossed paths and perhaps lived in close relations, we have yet to really understand the degree to which they lived together. My hypothesis is that these two hominids, Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans, interbred exchanging genes after Modern Humans dispersed from Africa and creating like cultures and material remains. The differences between Neanderthal and Modern humans are not only physical but also genetically evolved and this research will determine an estimated amount of admixture between the two groups.

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Modern Humans and Neanderthal

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first morphological features that later would become typical of Neanderthals, the projecting middle part of the face and a depression at the back of the skull, have been observed in fossils found in Europe as old as 400,000 years (Stringer & Hublin, 1999). These fossils belonged to Homo heidelbergensis, which in one of the various evolutionary scenarios that ties Neanderthals and modern humans is considered the ancestor of both Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens (Hubmlin, 2009).

    Read More

  • Theme Of Thou Blind Man's Mark

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ed mind” (6 Sidney). They all add to the bitterness to desire that the speaker feels. In the end the sense of irony is left. The speaker had spoken for his loathing of desire, and then he decided to look “within [himself] to seek]” his virtues (13 Sidney). With this new understanding, the speaker only desire is to “kill desire.” This paradox became the solution of the speaker’s problem of his unwanted desires and with that, ending his pain of his imprisoned and tortured mind (14 Sidney).

    Read More

  • The Last Of The Mohicans Essay

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Last of the Mohicans is set in the late 1750’s, during the French and Indian War. The French are attacking a British outpost (Fort William Henry) that has been put under the command of Colonel Munro and it is falling fast. Meanwhile, Munro’s two daughters Alice and Cora are being escorted by Major Duncan Heyward and an Indian named Magua to visit their father. They run into a white man named Natty Bumppo (also known as Hawkeye) and two Indians named Chingachgook and Uncas, who is Chingachgook’s son. Chingachgook and Uncas are the last of their tribe, the Mohicans. They inform them that Magua is leading them in the wrong direction and attempt to capture him, but he escapes. They are attacked the next morning by the Hurons and Magua captures both daughters, along with Heyward and Gamut. Moving along, Magua informs Heyward that he wants revenge on the Colonel and will free Alice if Cora will marry him, but Cora, who has developed romantic feelings for Uncas, angrily refuses. Just as things start to get heavy, Hawkeye and the Mohicans appear and rescue the captives, killing all of the Indians except Magua who manages to escape again. They eventually sneak into Fort Henry where the French army are besieging the fort. A parley is held due to lack of reinforcements, a mess of relations and racism goes down because Heyward prefers Alice to Cora, who had a “negro” mother.

    Read More

  • Neanderthals and Homo sapiens

    2241 Words  | 5 Pages

    In recent years, the Homo Neanderthalensis were viewed as “subhuman brutes”, but are now seen as a different species from our own (Balter 2001). The Neanderthals were a branch of the Homo genus that evolved in Eurasia at least 200,000 years ago (Fagan 2010). The first Neand...

    Read More

  • Similarities Of Neanderthals

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...IV burials are known to have had some 'traditional' medical uses, even among comparatively recent 'modern' populations. In other cases Neanderthal burials included grave goods, such as aurochs and bison bones, tools, and pigment ochre although again the evidence for this is disputed (Solecki 1975:880-881). Neanderthals made and used a diversified set of sophisticated tools, they were able to control fire, they lived in shelters, made and wore clothing, were very skilled hunters of large animals however also ate plant foods, and occasionally made symbolic or ornamental objects (Villa & Soriano 2010:5-28). There is evidence that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings, such as flowers. No other primates, and no earlier human species, had ever practiced this sophisticated and symbolic behavior.

    Read More

  • Redefining Neanderthals: From Cavemen to Human Subspecies

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    These species created many different tools, had similar bodies, and even proceeded in a similar burial process as humans do. The similarities between the Neanderthals and humans are quite unique and interesting. Many scientists have discovered the Neanderthals burials of the deceased shows that this species had to put a decent amount of thought and effort into the burial process. While the scientists uncovered the Neanderthals attempt in the burial process, it specifically shows that they did indeed believe in some sort of higher power and followed a type of religion. Although it is unclear which specific religion they did follow, it is clear to see that the Neanderthals did follow their own religion because the burial process signifies the belief in

    Read More

  • Decoding Personalities: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

    1589 Words  | 4 Pages

    Brunner explains, the Big Five personality dimensions are: 1) Neuroticism—level of stability versus instability, 2) Extraversion—tendency to be assertive, sociable, and energetic 3) Openness—disposition to be curious, open to new situations, and imaginative, 4) Agreeableness—disposition to be cooperative, supportive, trusting and 5) Conscientiousness—disposition toward purposeful, determined, and goal-directed behavior. These factors are dimensions, not types, so people vary continuously on them with most people falling in between the extremes. McRae and John claim that the Big Five is not a complete theory of personality...too few factors. Many have argued that five factors are insufficient to summarize all that we know about individual differences in

    Read More

  • Technology and its Impact on American Culture

    1322 Words  | 3 Pages

    Up until 1935, televisions were not electric as they are today. They were mechanical, powered by a small motor with a spinning disc and a neon lamp. The picture projected was very small, sometimes half the size of a business card, and only showed shades of orange and red. From 1935 up until World War II, the electric television was perfected and made ready for public distribution. The electric television provided a much larger, clearer screen with a full range of colors. In 1948-1949, during the post-WWII spending craze, the television became a must-have item for every American family, bringing a world of information and entertainment into living rooms across the country and changing the way Americans viewed many things.

    Read More

  • The Impact of Technology

    1424 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many different beginnings to the origins of computers. Their origins could be dated back more than two thousand years ago, depending on what a person means when they ask where the first computer came from. Most primitive computers were created for the purpose of running simple programs at best. (Daves Old Computers) However, the first ‘digital’ computer was created for the purposes of binary arithmetic, otherwise known as simple math. It was also created for regenerative memory, parallel processing, and separation of memory and computing functions. Built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry during 1937-1942, it was dubbed the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC).

    Read More

  • Is Society Becoming too Dependent on Computers

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    The computer has been one of man’s most influential inventions, paving the way for greater achievements with time. Today, computers have become an essential component in fulfilling everyday tasks in both our professional and personal lives. Computers are used to store vast amounts of information, and even replace humans in factories throughout the world. We must now ask ourselves, is this reliance on computers aiding the human mind in achieving its full potential or rather replacing it and hindering our progress? Society has now become dependant on computers. How does this machine affect our youth and learning process? We have invented a machine with a greater, and faster learning capacity as our own. A new generation has risen that have used computers for most of their lives so it is not surprising that they have become highly dependent on the computer. As of now, humans only use less than twenty percent of their brains, and with computers doing most of our work, this number is slowly decreasing.

    Read More

  • Computer Engineer

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    Computer engineering started about 5,000 years ago in China when they invented the abacus. The abacus is a manual calculator in which you move beads back and forth on rods to add or subtract. Other inventors of simple computers include Blaise Pascal who came up with the arithmetic machine for his father’s work. Also Charles Babbage produced the Analytical Engine, which combined math calculations from one problem and applied it to solve other complex problems. The Analytical Engine is similar to today’s computers.

    Read More

  • The History of Computers

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    The history of the computer dates back all the way to the prehistoric times. The first step towards the development of the computer, the abacus, was developed in Babylonia in 500 B.C. and functioned as a simple counting tool. It was not until thousands of years later that the first calculator was produced. In 1623, the first mechanical calculator was invented by Wilhelm Schikard, the “Calculating Clock,” as it was often referred to as, “performed it’s operations by wheels, which worked similar to a car’s odometer” (Evolution, 1). Still, there had not yet been anything invented that could even be characterized as a computer. Finally, in 1625 the slide rule was created becoming “the first analog computer of the modern ages” (Evolution, 1). One of the biggest breakthroughs came from by Blaise Pascal in 1642, who invented a mechanical calculator whose main function was adding and subtracting numbers. Years later, Gottfried Leibnez improved Pascal’s model by allowing it to also perform such operations as multiplying, dividing, taking the square root.

    Read More

  • The Role of Computers in Our Future

    500 Words  | 1 Pages

    As far as computers in the future, I feel that they are going to play a major role. They will be in everyday life, in everything we do. There will be many areas affected by the wide use of computers. Areas such as: home, work, schools, automobiles, electronics, and humans. Although these areas are already affected, they will be even more as we move into the future.

    Read More

  • Computers In Daily Life

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is a need for more computers in everyday life, in homes, schools and on the job. The advancement of computer technology today in all facets of the world, and life are growing to the point that everyone will need a computer to carry out their everyday life. Computer technology today is at the threshold of making life easier for everyone in the world.

    Read More

More about The Age of Computers

Open Document