Transcript History of Computing

CS 305
Social, Ethical, and Legal
Implications of Computing
Chapter 1
History of Computing
Herbert G. Mayer, PSU CS
status 6/20/2011
Most slides derived from prof. Wu-Chang Feng
Slides 15..19 copied from prof. Harrison + Massey
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Syllabus
 Impact of Technology
 Controlling Technology
 History of Computing
 History of Communications
 Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data
 History of Programming Languages
 History of Information Storage
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Impact of Technology
Technology impacts society, often in unforeseen ways
Examples:
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Candle light  allows us to work during hours of darkness
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Digital photography eliminates chemical photography, dark rooms
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E-mail reduced snail mail volumes
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Laptop computers increased neck- and back pain
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Cell phones makes users feel safer
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Automobile solved transportation problems
 created new ones (emissions, traffic jams)
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Refrigerators allowed foods to last longer
 freon impacts the ozone layer
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Internet vastly enhanced communication
 enabled outsourcing of programming jobs overseas
Other examples from students: …
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Controlling Technology
Mankind, laws, restrictions etc. cannot really “control”
invention, but can control deployment
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Nuclear power
P2P networks
Gun control
Amish
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Adopting new technologies affects how people relate
Bishops meet twice a year to determine which ones to allow
Cars? No! Create more hectic life, causes danger, pollutes
Gas barbeque? Yes, brings people closer together
Telephone? No, reduces face to face communication
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Focus: Computer Technology
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History of Computing
Manual Calculators
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10 fingers: limited numeric range, fails to work in cold weather
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Abacus, base 5 and 10: works well with small-ish numbers
Mechanical Calculators
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Pascal (~1643) adder, invented at age 20!
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Leibnitz (~1660) four function calculator
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Burroughs (1890s), thought a few units saturate market
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Charles Babbage (1810) Difference Engine, aborted for AE
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Babbage’s Analytical Engine AE (1835), also never completed
Other Calculating Devices
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Bouchon, Falcon, Jacques (~1710-1750) punched cards to program
repeated weaving patterns
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John Atanasoff (~1937) Iowa state prof. builds first digital computer
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Konrad Zuse (~1940) builds first relais-based digital computer with
programming language (Plankalkül)
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History of Computing
Computing Innovations
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Guthrie (~1873) and Edison (~1883) vacuum tubes as
switching device
Cash register - Ritty (early 1900s)
 Prevent embezzlement via itemized receipts and printed logs
 Track tax collected
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Hollerith (~1900) punch card tabulation for census
Presper Eckert and John Mauchly (~1944) build Electronic
computer ENIAC, based on Atanasoff’s ideas
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History of Computing: UNIVAC
ENIAC was basis for UNIVAC, was commercially not successful
Acquired ~1950 by Remington Rand, thus started the first commercially
successful computer corporation
Used to count votes, predict outcome of 1952 presidential election
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Predicted Adlai Stevenson lead over Dwight Eisenhower in polls before
election close
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UNIVAC accurately predicted (with 7% of the vote counted) that Eisenhower
would win in a landslide
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Computer programmers of UNIVAC mistrusted their program, modified it to
tilt the results more in favor of Stevenson
 CBS reported the erroneous result instead of the original
 Original prediction was accurate!
Other companies successful at building general-purpose computers: IBM,
CDC, NCR, Honeywell, GE, Ferranti, HP, Digital, Ahmdahl, Wang, …
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History of Computing
Programming languages
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Detail later …
Transistors and integrated circuits
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Bell Labs (1948)
Enabled smaller, more powerful computers
With higher reliability, critical due to large number of parts
Integral in the development of the Minuteman II ballistic
missile
Microprocessors
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Intel 4004 (1969)
Eventually allowed computers in everyday devices (cell
phones, mp3 players, digital cameras)
Today having > 1 Billion transistors
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History of Communications
Telegraph
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Samuel Morse (1830s)
Telegraph machine based on electricity to communicate
First line between Washington D.C. and Baltimore (1844)
200k miles of wire by 1877
Put Pony Express out of business
Most cities developed fire alarm telegraphs
Telephone
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Alexander Graham Bell (1876)
Transmission of human voice electronically
Eroded social hierarchies
 Ordinary citizens calling the governor
 Telemarketers!
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Loss of privacy
 Operators could eavesdrop on conversations
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History of Communications
Typewriter (1873) and teletype (1908)
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Electronic transmission of typed text
Radio
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Marconi (1895)
Used in 1912 by Titanic to signal distress
Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” (Halloween 1938)
Radio play that demonstrated the power of radio to blur lines of
reality
Was Welles acting ethically?
Television
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Nipkow (1884), Farnsworth (1927)
Used to broadcast Armstrong landing on the moon (1969)
 Note delay! Just in case
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Problems with junkies?
Influences elections
 East cost results influence voting on the west coast
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History of Communications
ARPANET
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Precursor to Internet
Decentralized, packet-switched data network
Led to current Internet and its applications (E-mail, WWW)
Cell phones
Other gadgets: Skype, twitter, Facebook …
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History of Programming Languages
Some languages:
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Binary coding; Assembly language; Relocatable assembler
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High-level programming languages, and machine independent
programming languages
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FORTRAN (~1956) John Backus, IBM
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Lisp late 1950s
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Basic (Beginner’s All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) 1963
Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny at Darthmouth
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Algol-60, committee, report 1960, Backus + Naur
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Cobol (COmmon Business Oriented Language) with decimal type,
Capt. Grace Mary Hopper US Navy
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APL (A Programming Language) 1950s Kenneth Iverson IBM
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Algol-W, Jovial, Algol-68
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IBM, committee IBM, 1960, everything except kitchen sink
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C, Ada, Modula-2, Prolog, C++, Java, C#
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More from students …
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History of Information Storage
Codex
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From scrolls (BC) to durable bound volumes (~200 AD)
Printing press
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Gutenberg (1436)
Vehicle for mass communication and dissemination of information
Martin Luther and the Reformation
 Instrumental in the publication and dissemination of his theses
 Unified German languages into 1 common language
Hypertext systems
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Vannevar Bush (1945)
Mennex: Information retrieval where associated documents easily
linked to each other
Led to current WWW hypertext system – Berners-Lee (1990)
Search engines
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Yahoo, Google, etc.
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Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data
Storing Data
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Wax Tablets [2000BC]
 auxiliary storage
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Codex [200s]
 from scrolls to books
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The Printing Press [1436+]
 write once, produce many
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Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data
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Paper Tape [1870s]
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Punched Cards [1890s]
 Herman Hollarith
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Magnetic Storage [1920s]
 For audio
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Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data
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Magnetic Data Tape [1951]
 ~10M on a 2400’ reel
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Hard Disk [1956]
 RANDOM ACCESS!
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Storing Organizing, Retrieving Data
Acquiring Data
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Keyboarding [1920s]
 IBM card punch
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Optical Character
Recognition [1950s]
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Speech Recognition [1961]
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Barcodes [1974]
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Storing Organizing, Retrieving Data
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Radio-frequency identification
(RFID) [1980s]
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Video Recognition [1990s]
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Discussion
Are there technologies you wish had never been adopted?
Give examples of how new technologies require society to create
new rules
Should ripping a CD of your own legal? Would it be legal to leave
the digital copy on an open network share? Would it be legal
to add it to a P2P sharing library?
Can Amazon sell your personal information to third-party
partners? Should they be able to?
Who is liable for software failures that cause injury or death?
What are limits to workspace monitoring?
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Extra Discussion
Do you believe we are more connected or less
connected with people today?
Should election polls close at the same time
everywhere in the US?
Should one be prevented from posting content on the
Internet that is legal in one country, but not in
another?
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In-Class Exercise
List the last three-five consumer electronic devices
that someone in your acquaintance purchased
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List a number of benefits to society this has provided to
you and others
List a number of potentially harmful benefits the device has
“provided” to you
List three computer applications that you believe have
a huge impact on society.
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What benefits have they provided?
What harmful side-effects did they cause?
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