Monday, September 22, 2014
Computer: From Then to Now
I chose the word computer to see how it's meaning has changed from the late 1960's/early 1970's to the present. In an article I read from the New York Times, they referred to a man in his obituary as a computer. The word mathematician seemed to be used interchangeable with the word computer making it obvious as to what they meant when calling someone a computer. This man was clearly intelligent as they talked about advances in technology he had contributed to and other sorts advances he made due to his "computer" like skills. Nowadays, a computer is referred to as a piece of equipment that has multiple functions. I don't think that we'd ever refer to someone as a computer in today's world, but it makes sense how the term computer was developed then and to how it has morphed to be the object it is now.
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2 comments:
I think it's really interesting that this term originated from the actions of a single person. It really solidifies the theory that technology doesn't actually allow us to accomplish anything totally new, instead allowing us to do the same things we've always done but in less time and on a much greater scale.
I was first surprised when I found out that computer was original meant a person to do calculations. During WWII near Bletchley Park (outside London between Oxford and Cambridge), there were many ads for computers, meant for women to do calculations for encoding and decoding messages.
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