Science fiction is filled with a wide variety of technologies. Sometimes the technology presented is merely a transposition of existing technologies into the story. At other times, the author takes existing technologies and extrapolates potential novel technology with uncanny accuracy. In both cases, existing technologies have an obvious impact upon the author. Written during the first generation of electronic computers, Starman Jones (1953) and "A Logic Named Joe" (1946) provide excellent examples of both these cases.
The first generation of electronic computers was characterized by hulking monstrosities of tubes and wires, housed in metal. The first programmable electronic computer was Colossus. Completed in 1943, Colossus contained 1600 vacuum tubes [6] and filled a large office room. The first general-purpose electronic computer was ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer [12]. Completed in 1947, ENIAC contained over 17,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors and 10,000 capacitors. It had over 5 million hand-soldered joints, weighed 27 tons, used 150 kW of power and occupied almost 700 square feet [11]. The first stored-program electronic computer was the Manchester "Baby", or Small Scale Experimental Machine. Completed in 1948, the "Baby" contained 550 valves, used 3.5 kW of power and occupied over 400 square feet [9]. The trend during this time was towards massive, complex machines that were not very easily moved and consumed large amounts of power. Nevertheless, this trend continued because the larger the machine, the more computing power it possessed.
Interacting with these early computers was no easy task. The Colossus was designed specifically for breaking German encryption codes during World War II. A part...
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...cation. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_telecommunication
9.Manchester Museum of Science & Industry. (n.d.). The "Baby": The world's first stored-program computer [Brochure]. Author. Retrieved May 20, 2010, from http://www.msim.org.uk/media/33871703/thebaby,theworldsfirststored-programcomputer.pdf
10.The Colossus Computer. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2010, from http://www.tnmoc.org/colossus-rebuild.aspx
11.Weik, M. H. (1955). A survey of domestic electronic digital computing systems (United State of America, US Department of Commerce). Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md.: Ballistic Research Laboratories. Retrieved May 20, 2010, from http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL-e-h.html
12.Weik, M. H. (1961). The ENIAC Story. Ordnance, (January-February). Retrieved May 20, 2010, from http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html
In conclusion, Ray Bradbury had an amazing prediction of what the technologies being made in his time would do to us and how it would affect us and our minds.
In the fifties, computers were in the experimental stage they were extremely hard to work with, and were a constant technicians worst nightmare, because often enough you had to replace the fuses (s Appendix a).
In 1953 it was estimated that there were 100 computers in the world. Computers built between 1959 and 1964 are often regarded as the "second generation" computers, based on transistors and printed circuits - resulting in much smaller computers. 1964 the programming language PL/1 released by IBM. 1964 the launch of IBM 360. These first series of compatible computers. In 1970 Intel introduced the first RAM chip. In 1975 IBM 5100 was released. In 1976 the Apple Computer Inc. was founded, to market Apple I Computer. Designed to Stephen Wozinak and Stephan Jobs. In 1979 the first compact disk was released around 1981 IBM announced PC, the standard model was sold for $2,880.00.
When World War II broke out in 1939 the United States was severely technologically disabled. There existed almost nothing in the way of mathematical innovations that had been integrated into military use. Therefore, the government placed great emphasis on the development of electronic technology that could be used in battle. Although it began as a simple computer that would aid the army in computing firing tables for artillery, what eventually was the result was the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). Before the ENIAC it took over 20 hours for a skilled mathematician to complete a single computation for a firing situation. When the ENIAC was completed and unveiled to the public on Valentine’s Day in 1946 it could complete such a complex problem in 30 seconds. The ENIAC was used quite often by the military but never contributed any spectacular or necessary data. The main significance of the ENIAC was that it was an incredible achievement in the field of computer science and can be considered the first digital and per...
...es the reader thinking about the impact of technology long after they have finished the story.
Following shortly after Z3, Britain's Colossus in 1943 and two years later America came up with another system ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
Ceruzzi, P. E. (1998). A history of modern computing (pp. 270-272). London, England: The MIT Press.
Scientific breakthroughs rise exponentially, with the potential for new ideas every few seconds, and 3.) The point at which the future cannot be predicted beyond a scientific sense. Looking solely at the first concept, technological singularity is the most pressing in today’s society, especially with multiple films depicting apocalyptic environments that are a direct result of A.I. Evidence of this event can be shown when computer power is plotted against Moore’s law, a predicted rate of computational evolution devised by Gordon E. Moore in 1965.... ... middle of paper ...
This new desire for computing portability introduced a number of new challenges. Factors such as cost, weight, power source, screen & keyboard size, overall size, and included software presented great challenges to computer system designers. There is some debate regarding which machine holds claim to being the first portable computer, as portable was a relative term used quite liberally. The earliest portables, while heavy by today’s standards, shared the common characteristic of integrating a keyboard, memory, processor(s), display, and expandability potential into a single unit able to be transported.
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.
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.
The Whirlwind computer had a video display that was controlled interactively by a light gun. The display attracted users much more than computer code. The Whirlwind computer became the basis for SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), a defense command-and-control system developed for the Air force. In the 1960s Ivan Sutherland’s MIT doctoral thesis introduced a Sketchpad interactive drawing system, which established the theoretical groundwork for computer graphics software (Machover 14). In the mid-1960s, computer graphics was booming in private industry. General Motors had released DAC-1 a computer-aided design system, and Itek developed the Digigraphics electronic drafting machine. By the late 1960s the first storage-tube display terminals appeared, shortly followed by direct-view storage tube display terminals (DVST) which cost thousands of dollars; however this was an improvement to the tens to hundreds of thousands spent initially for display systems. In the 1970s Turnkey systems emerged, beforehand users had to develop software to make their hardware work however turnkey systems provided a haven to users from software issues. Bit-mapped raster displays developed as memory...
Throughout all of this long years, ever since the end of World War II, our development of weapons and medicine had improved a lot, but we never actually stopped to wonder when this was so important and how it was actually needed for an emergency, and how people needed this improvement for the safety of their lives. This day, where it all was necessary was during World War II, which demonstrates how science improved life and war techniques, the colossus computer was created, and many people were responsible for the advancements of technology and science during World War II.
Science and Technology has been around from the beginning of time. It evolved from the everyday efforts of people trying to improve their way of life. Throughout history, humankind has developed and utilized tools, machines, and techniques without understanding how or why they worked or comprehending their physical or chemical composition. Before we go any further a definition has to be given for both Science and Technology because they are both different in their own right even though the two are almost indistinguishable. According to the Oxford Dictionary Technology can be defined as the knowledge or use of the mechanical arts and applied sciences, while Science can be defined as the branch of knowledge involving systematized observation and experiment. Science can be further divided into three separate categories; Pure, Applied and Natural Sciences. In addition technology is often defined as applied science, it is simply the application of scientific knowledge to achieve a specific human purpose, however, historical evidence suggests technology is a product of science.
Houghton. A Brief Timeline in the History of Computers. Western Carolina University Retrieved January 30th 2014 from Western Carolina University: