I’ve never been interested in modern history, finding more enjoyment in the mythological legends of heroes and gods. Stories and tales which have captured our imagination and continue to do so to this day. But now and again, I come across some parts of modern history that I’m fascinated by. What really grabbed me at first, was how early the conceptualisation of computers was occurring. It came as a surprise to me. The advancement of the industrial era lead to one of the first prototype of computers, the Difference Engine. In the mid 1800s the design of the difference engine was produced by Charles Babbage, it was the first conceptualised computer, designed to devise complex number equations and mathematical number charts, such as sine, and cosine tables.The machine would be able to press out its results on Plasticine which then could be used to create prints, while also creating an inked copy, so it could be checked to see if the device printed out correctly. The Difference Engine for a long time, only existed in it’s concept, due to the advancement of the machine at the time.
I felt I should talk about the Difference Engine, not only because of the advancement of it for that age, but the mirroring of computers from recent history and now. Computers everyday produce and solve complex algebra equations and calculation while loading, using and rendering in programs, and the calculator app is always a feature that appears on computers. With an edition of a printer, we pretty much at the core, have an complicated version of the Difference Engine.
With this the comparison, I realised that we look to the old, to see how we can advance the new, using ideas and concepts that had failed before, to see if it’s possible to make it happen with the knowledge and technical advancement we have now. We want to see how far we have advanced, how far we can take human imagination and invention. This isn’t the only realisation that occurred to me, but I’ll start with the next big creation.
The audio oscillator 200a appearance had a large time gap between its creation by HP in 1939 and the Difference Engine conceptualisation back in 1833. Technological and mechanical achievements were occurring within households and industry, as well as weaponry and tactics when World War 1 occurred. The Oscillator was the one of the first advancements in mechanical computing since the Difference Engine, becoming the first electrical computer device.
As World War 2 began, different electronical machines started being produced funded by the governments and its military in order to defeat its enemies. War tends to cause heavy advancements in elements such as different forms of weaponry, tactics and machinery, anything that would allow an advantage over the enemy. An arms race begins. Early machines involved creating code breaking equipment, and technology which could be used in extending the life of troops on the battlefields, such as flight simulators.
After war time, technology evolved to the point where it became cheap enough and small enough, to manufacture for personal use in homes. Filtering down from the government, to large corporations, and then to the smaller ones. During this time, the emergence of video games occurred. Device were created in order to amuse people with this cheapened technology, through experimentation and looking at other creations at that time. One such product of this, was the Cathode Ray Tube device. The games concept was based off World War 2 radar displays, where incoming enemies could be detected in any situation. The game itself was pretty much this, the player uses the knobs to move the light beams, which indicate the missiles, and the player attempts to hit the targets printed on clear screen overlays. Again, we find ourselves looking at elements and concepts that existed and reusing them for different uses or advancing them to make them more useful.
For this post, I felt that the elements learnt about philosophical side of this time period was more important than some of the technological advancements. I’ve learnt that looking back at the past, can provide a more updated version of an idea, perhaps an element emerging from that, which is only linked to it by the tiniest thread. But in the end, the core of this idea, originated from that old piece of history.
Sources for this post:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/earlyinstruments/0002/
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/d/diffengi.htm
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/computing_and_data_processing/1862-89.aspx
http://classicgames.about.com/od/classicvideogames101/p/CathodeDevice.htm
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