History Of Computers

Does the history of computers, those wonderful, information rich tools that bring the world to our fingers and sometimes aggravation to our lives have any interest to us? It probably ought to because the computer has been voted one of the most influential inventions of the last one hundred years, although this writer's choice is the air conditioner which has sucked everybody back in our cool houses and away from relationships that were born on front porches during long summer evening walks. No, this is not about air conditioners. While the abacus has been around for tens of centuries, anything resembling what might be called a computer of sorts was invented in the late 1930's and early 40's by a German inventor named Konrad Zuse. The man has been called the father of the modern computer.

It is not surprising that the early history of the computer was pretty much fleshed out at universities in America and in Europe. In the atmosphere of math, physics and engineering genius that certainly pervaded and still pervades the world's learning institutions today, the desire to think outside the box brought about the early versions of what we know today as a pc. While many pcs today can do one hundred and fifty billion math computations in a few seconds, the early models could do one calculation in fifteen seconds. Words like vacuum tubes, seven hundred miles of wire, five tons of weight, fifty five feet long, seven hundred thousand moving parts, and pre punched rolls of paper, thirty tons of weight; 1800 square feet in size are all mentioned when describing the internal parts of a computer in the 1950's. In 1953, private enterprise entered the pc business when the International Business Machines Company produced nineteen model 701-EDPMs for various companies and the military. As history marched on, the invention of the transistor, the mouse, floppy disk, microprocessor, the first Apple pc, the Commodore 64, spreadsheet software, word processing software were part of a snowball becoming an avalanche on the American scene.

By the seventies, internal parts of a computer began acquiring names with which many Americans are now familiar. Hard drives, disk drives, motherboard, sound card, power supply, CPU and other terms started being uttered on the lips of a few and later became the common vocabulary of millions. Americans may not have understood what any of these parts played in the pc processing scheme, but they knew that a hard disk breakdown or a motherboard being fried was not a good thing. Many a pc was tossed out a nearby window when the term fatal error flashed on the screen. And when a disk drive went bad, many Americans began to understand that the problem was just a matter of slipping one out and putting another one in its place. "I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service." (Romans 12:1)

In the early history of computers, data memory was in the form of delay (sending pulses through a liquid like mercury and refreshing the memory device), Williams tubes (cathode ray tubes), and magnetic drums that held punch cards or paper tape. Internal parts of a pc today that have memory storage responsibilities include volatile units, such as the CPU or central processing unit, and the main memory or RAM. Volatile means that the units have to be powered to retain memory. Non volatile memory storage is found in the hard disk, and in off line sources such as CD's and DVD's and flash drives and zip drives. Today, the most important of the internal parts of the pc (but all are needed for a modern computer to function) is the motherboard, sometimes called the mobo by some computer makers. The mobo coordinates all the computer's activities, and includes the microprocessor, main memory, non volatile memory including BIOS, the pc's internal clock and slots for expansion cards such as sound and video.

So the history of computers is remarkable in that they have really only been around in a useful mode for about forty years. The changes in the internal parts of a computer are happening almost monthly in terms of speed and memory storage. They are becoming smaller and smaller and are used in automobiles, refrigerators, air conditioners, medical devices and well...the story is familiar. So the history of computers is not nearly as compelling as the future of computers. Where do scientists see these boxes that sit on our desks and on our laps going in the next fifteen or twenty years? Gates of Microsoft once said that the world hadn't seen anything yet.

Reality seems to point to mankind depending more and more on science and technology answering its deep and seemingly impossible problems. Because recent generations' histories have also been the history of pcs, there seems to be no understanding that believing in technology as the ultimate answer to man's problems could be, and is in fact, flawed. While much of the world is under the delusion that man is intrinsically good and possesses within himself the ability to overcome greed and hate and lust and the desire for power, the truth as God sees it is much different. God calls all of mankind sinful and fallen and incapable of becoming anything other than that which he already is: greedy, hateful...you know. Utopia will always elude us in our natural state. God will provide that place to dwell forever to those who love, honor and trust Him. It's not the internal parts of a computer perpetually evolving to a higher level of capability that will save us; it is the internal parts of our hearts, our inner beings changing by the power of God that will bring heaven on earth.

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