According to studies by Think Insights, “80% of the world’s population has had a smart phone at one time or another.” While a statement like this may appear nothing more than trivial to someone from a modern setting, a little more than a decade ago the technology we take as an everyday affordance was merely a schematic in the back of someone’s head. These “Fathers of Modern Computers” are responsible for the extremely complex hardware and software that makes up the whole of your iPhone or the Samsung Galaxy. Without the philosophies and ideas behind the modern computer that this handful of mathematicians produced, smartphones, computers and laptops as we know them would never have existed.
One of the main contributors to the foundation of modern computer science is Charles Babbage. Born into a wealthy family, Charles was unhindered by financial burden for the majority of his life and was therefore able to pursue his personal interests freely. Eventually he attended Cambridge University in order to study Mathematics. Quickly realizing he was mentally years ahead of his teachers, he gradually moved away from classrooms and began to seek likeminded individuals. Charles eventually met John Herschel and George Peacock and formed the Analytical Society in which he drastically helped in weakening the grasp of Isaac Newton’s theories that were deeply engraved at the university. After years of research, he eventually began designing a machine called the Difference Engine; an invention that would become the basis for the first computer. It was capable of calculating a sequence of numbers to the 7th polynomial and would be able to print hard copies of the results for recordkeeping. Unfortunately due to financial disputes he was never able...
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...ries of writings called, “On Computable Numbers”. This series of papers focused on what the functions of a machine were and more importantly described what a computer was capable of performing. Turing’s works were important because they were the starting point for theories on self-operating machines and artificial intelligence and influenced the way companies would design their computers in the future.
Nowadays you don’t have to look very far to see just how far the benefits of computers has reached. Most of all modern machinery is a form of computer nowadays and is only getting more complex as evidenced by such advanced pieces of devices such as smartphones. However, everything has to start from somewhere and none of these advances in science would be possible without the bedrock of mathematical geniuses who helped pave the way for this innovation in technology.
Technology has always been at the forefront of the world’s mind, for as long as anyone can remember. The idea of “advancing” has been a consistent goal among developers. However, recently the invention of smartphones broke out into the world of technology, causing millions of people to become encapsulated in a world of knowledge at their fingertips. Jean Twenge elaborates on the impacts of the smartphone on the younger generation in her article “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?” Twenge’s article is just a sliver of the analysis that she presents in her book “IGen.” Twenge, a professor of psychology at San
This narrowed down the number of possibilities of a message to only a slim margin, making it much easier to decrypt messages. After World War II, Turing went on to try to create the first electronic computer. Though an actual computer was never built under him, his design was used as a blueprint for many years by corporations that eventually created the world’s first computer. He then went on to hold high-ranking positions in mathematics and computing at the University of Manchester. There, he developed the concept of artificial intelligence and the Turing Test.
Alan Turing was born June 23, 1912 in London, England. He was a bright child, often times misunderstood by his teachers while in grade school. He grew interested in mathematics while attending Sherborne School, which would be a driving force for him the rest of his life. His adult academic studies included getting an undergrad degree in mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and his Ph.D. of mathematical logic at Princeton University. His mathematical mind allowed him to have many amazing accomplishments in his lifetime; becoming the father of the modern day fields of computer science, artificial intelligence, and artificial life. His ideas in these fields didn’t have a huge impact in his lifetime; however his efforts to help the allied
In 500 B.C. the abacus was first used by the Babylonians as an aid to simple arithmetic. In 1623 Wihelm Schickard (1592 - 1635) invented a "Calculating Clock". This mechanical machine could add and subtract up to 6 digit numbers, and warned of an overflow by ringing a bell. J. H. Mueller comes up with the idea of the "difference engine", in 1786. This calculator could tabulate values of a polynomial. Muellers attempt to raise funds fails and the project was forgotten. Scheutz and his son Edward produced a 3rd order difference engine with a printer in 1843 and their government agreed to fund their next project.
Lovelace met Charles Babbage in 1833. At that time, Babbage was working on his difference machine, which he created to calculate values of polynomials. He was
Alan Turing left an indelible mark on the world with technological inventions, extraordinary talent, and productive habits. His dedication to hard work and perseverance against the discouragement of bullying provide fantastic examples for anyone to emulate. Also, the inventions of the Turing Machine and the Bombe were the primary reasons why computers existed during the last sixty years, and were important factors in the demise of Nazi Germany. Finally, for one to truly understand why Turing was important in world history, he should envision life without modern technology and
Alan Turing was a pioneer in the world of computers and technology by contributing to the fields of mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence, along with other fields as well. He lived from June 23, 1912 until June 7, 1954. Born in London, he spent his childhood living in England as the son of a member of the Indian Civil Service. While his father was commissioned in India, he and his brother lived in numerous different English foster homes. As a child, he expressed a strong interest and passion for science. Turing studied mathematics in King’s College, University of Cambridge, and graduated in 1934. He completed his Ph.D. in mathematical logic in 1938 in Princeton University.
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.
He came up with the design for the first real electronic computer with stored programs. He had a dream of a “universal computing machine” that could solve any problem. He collaborated with others to design and build the ACE, or “automatic computing engine”. This machine directly influenced the Bendix G15, the first modern PC. Although he contributed a lot to the ACE, he had a falling out with the company right before its completion, and didn’t get to see his dream become a
Abstract: - The unsung hero of World War II was Alan Turing. - Born on June 23, 1912 in London, Alan Turing was an innovative computer scientist and mathematician. He was especially prominent in the development of theoretical computer science. He is widely known for his 1936 paper which introduced the “Turing Machine.” His work also made substantial contributions in the area of artificial intelligence and has set the foundation for research in this area. Other areas of interest which he contributed to included cryptology and theoretical biology.
The world nowadays is changing with a high pace, and it's also the world that's based on information technology. Every day, we're using a complicated machine that simplifies our life: computers. But how many people actually knows who came up with the idea of computers? Many young people nowadays might be familiar with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and the debate of which one of them has contributed more to the world of computers is still going on and even keep boiling. But people rarely know anything about the real designer of computers, the person labeled as the Einstein of the world of computers, Alan Turing. He is an English mathematician born in 1912, who praised as the father of computers and artificial
The First Generation of Computers The first generation of computers, beginning around the end of World War 2, and continuing until around the year 1957, included computers that used vacuum tubes, drum memories, and programming in machine code. Computers at that time where mammoth machines that did not have the power our present day desktop microcomputers. In 1950, the first real-time, interactive computer was completed by a design team at MIT. The "Whirlwind Computer," as it was called, was a revamped U.S. Navy project for developing an aircraft simulator.
Ada Lovelace was the daughter of famous poet at the time, Lord George Gordon Byron, and mother Anne Isabelle Milbanke, known as “the princess of parallelograms,” a mathematician. A few weeks after Ada Lovelace was born, her parents split. Her father left England and never returned. Women received inferior education that that of a man, but Isabelle Milbanke was more than able to give her daughter a superior education where she focused more on mathematics and science (Bellis). When Ada was 17, she was introduced to Mary Somerville, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician who’s party she heard Charles Babbage’s idea of the Analytic Engine, a new calculating engine (Toole). Charles Babbage, known as the father of computer invented the different calculators. Babbage became a mentor to Ada and helped her study advance math along with Augustus de Morgan, who was a professor at the University of London (Ada Lovelace Biography Mathematician, Computer Programmer (1815–1852)). In 1842, Charles Babbage presented in a seminar in Turin, his new developments on a new engine. Menabrea, an Italian, wrote a summary article of Babbage’s developments and published the article i...
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.
Technology continued to prosper in the computer world into the nineteenth century. A major figure during this time is Charles Babbage, designed the idea of the Difference Engine in the year 1820. It was a calculating machine designed to tabulate the results of mathematical functions (Evans, 38). Babbage, however, never completed this invention because he came up with a newer creation in which he named the Analytical Engine. This computer was expected to solve “any mathematical problem” (Triumph, 2). It relied on the punch card input. The machine was never actually finished by Babbage, and today Herman Hollerith has been credited with the fabrication of the punch card tabulating machine.