Social Evolution of Computing
The effects of computing power, therefore the effective potential of computers is beyond us. Even for something "man-made", the evolution of computers, and the social impacts of their use has grown beyond our comprehension. I seek not to bring into light the purpose of computing, but rather to explain the social impacts of this digital evolution, through a simple physical timeline. I'm not going to explain what has been said before, but examine the social movement, this cyborg evolution, that has constantly been building the potential of computing since its conception. Throughout time, the physical size of computers has grown smaller, while the social potential of such has grown at an exponential rate.Computers are all around us, and for most of us, it has always been that way. But let's travel back in time to a different era, to a completely different generation, to the birth of the first integrated circuit. The time is early 1960's. The era of the computer was ushered in with the birth of the first commercially available silicon based Integrated Circuit, from the Fairchild Corporation. Presently, microprocessors (or integrated circuits) are cheap enough so that anyone can purchase them at a reasonable price. Back at the dawn o
Good (a member of Bletchley Park) and Marvin Minsky. This created a fear, that you could be replaced by a computer, and in order to beat a computer, you needed to be smarter than a computer. People everywhere were jumping on the bandwagon, buying a PC, teaching their kids, kids were teaching themselves even! With the growth of the World Wide Web came an unimaginable growth in the amount of information available to the general public. One such group, perhaps the most popular and well know group, is simply known as The Computer Group. f the computing millennium, even the most simplistic microprocessor cost in the neighborhood of a couple thousand dollars. The world of personal computing was growing beyond its conventional realms. The rise of popularity of the internet brought about a different social impact, as social skills no longer were physical, rather they were digital. The computer is all around us, and its dominance will continue to grow at an exponential rate. Behold the birth of mainstream geek culture. Some refuse to touch it, for fear of the unknown it holds. Socially the smaller size was a huge hit. Socially, I don't think anything has impacted us more than the introduction of computers. We must also take into account the sheer physical size of these computing centers. The era of the Cyborg is coming full circle and the social revolution burns brighter than ever, all thanks to the unimaginable potential of a simple microprocessor. The PDP-8 had a minuscule instruction set and a primitive micro-language, but it had an excellent interface capability.
Common topics in this essay:
Wide Web,
PC Magazine,
Corporation Presently,
Equipment Corporation,
,
Alan Shugart,
Gary Kildall,
Apple II,
Supposedly HAL,
Computer Consulting,
personal computer,
potential computing,
computer generation,
social impact,
physical size,
social impacts,
brought huge social,
operating systems,
integrated circuit,
popular culture,
exponential rate,
social impact social,
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