When I was little I would always ask to use my grandparent’s computer, but they wouldn’t let me until I was 8 years old, probably because they didn’t trust me around it. When I first used it I was hooked,I wanted to know how this thing came to be, so I did some research on the history of computers ,the evolution of the technology inside of them, and how they influence our lives today.
It turns out, according to I-programmer.com the first fully functional programmable computer was built by a German man named Konrad Zus,. He believed so much in the idea of a programmable computer that he quit his job, moved back in with his parents, and worked on the computer between the years of 1936-1938 but it didn’t see wide use, mainly because of its low functionality. The first real computer to see wide use was the Eniac, it started construction in 1943 and was completed in 1946 ,it took up 1800 square feet and weighed nearly 50 tons, this was a technological feat back then. Now I’m going to put this into perspective, the Eniac could perform 5000 calculations in a second, which sounds like a lot right? Well the smartphone in your pocket today can perform over a billion operations in a second.
Now this evolution of computers and chips is called Moore’s law. Moore's law refers to an observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965. He observed that the amount of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since their invention. Moore's law predicts that this trend will continue into the foreseeable future. Today I feel we take computers and smartphones for granted we use them for web browsing, Facebook and applications like Snapchat without ever thinking were we'd be without them.
Computers have influenced our lives so much since their conception, They were there when we won the space race ,when we got to the moon and when we sent the first rover to mars.computers have been so essential to some of mankind’s greatest achievements that its almost impossible to imagine where we'd be today without them. Early in the start of world war 2 a computer wasn't known for being a machine it was a job description that's right according ethw.org the U.S Military hired women and some men to serve as human computers the job consisted of using mechanical desk calculators to solve long lists of equations later used for aiming and firing large artillery cannons in different weather situations this was tedious and long work ,the military knew they're was a better way so they began work on the Eniac the device I mentioned earlier, when the device was finished 6 women who had previously been in the computing profession were hired to program this device their names were Kay Mcnulty, Frances Bilas, Betty Jean Jennings,Elizabeth Snyder, Ruth Lichterman, and Mary Wescoff these women are widely referred to today as the first computer programmers. Today programming is a huge profession it helps us develop new and more interesting technology. In 1947 a man named Howard Aiken famously said “only 6 electronic digital computers would be required to satisfy the computing needs of the entire United States”
All that I have to say to that is wow was he wrong!! I feel like I have come a long way since those days of just playing on the computer. I now realize how much I had been taking advantage of the technology I have at my disposal and how much I took it for granted. For the last words of my speech I will be asking you all a question when was the last time you took your technology for granted?