1/29/08

automatons and more
is this a robot?
it is just mechanical and only does one thing
doesn't interact with the environment
be able to correct mistakes
a robot has software
these weren't practical machines, just toys
or is it a robot if it moves?
is it a computer if it is mechanical?

what were the jobs that needed to be done?

• document preparation
• information storage
• financial analysis and accounting
• complex scientific calculations
  

how were those jobs done before you had electronic digital computers?

• you didn't need these machines before mid 1800s--rise of big business (Alfred Chandler, The Visible Hand)
  
• people such as the women computers
• systems of organization
  
• invention of machines such as punch card machines
• analog computers
  

before the computer

Census machines: pictures

Office machines:
history of the file cabinet, typewriter, adding machine, cash register
made possible by the American System of Manufacture
technological momentum--hard to change from the QWERTY keyboard

analog computers such as network analyzers


Eniac through minicomputers

Turing

ENIAC:  worlds first multipurpose, electronic, digital computer

• analog computers above
• Turings special purpose codebreaking computer came first
• there were earlier electromechanical computers

Some people say ENIAC is not the first computer because it didn't store programs

How did computers transition from an expensive military tool to something useful for business:

• IBM because they were already in the business machine market
• you need to invent effective machines for input and output, eg. printers
• transistors replace vacuum tubes
• higher level programming languages like Cobol and Fortran