The evolution of human technology has spanned from the beginning of our history till today. Mans ability to overcome tasks by realizing complex solutions has separated us from every other species and lead to us dominating the earth. We are always looking for more faster, easier and accurate ways to do things and will always be improving by discovery and sharing our knowledge. As described in the book “Computers, The life story of a Technology” by Eric Swedin, we have been looking for ways to automate mathematics since bones were used for counting in 35,000 BCE. Not only is there a drive to create technology for new uses but also to improve the technology we have already discovered. Such as Lord Kelvin’s tide machine in the 1800’s which predicted the tide using pulleys and a pen which drew the result on a piece of paper. This machine was then recreated by the U.S. Coast Geodetic Survey in 1911 which was so accurate that it was not matched till IBM’s 7094 computer in the 1960’s. This improvement was driven by the need to protect ships which needed to come to shore, and avoid hitting low tide which can be dangerous and fatal.
Before the computer age, information did not travel as fast throughout the world. It took the slow diffusion of information through the world before the capacities of the human minds were put to its full potential use by combining ideas of great scholars from across the world. It took the globalization of resources and ideas to reach where we have come today. The ancient people of Sumer, Egypt and Babylonia had different number systems with different bases and uses. Finally in 500CE the 9-digit number system we use today was developed in India. “The movement of this new system appears to have occurred fairly quickly- most likely due to extensive trade (pg.5). Over the years the 9 digit number system spread across the world but was not generally accepted in Europe until the 1200’s when Fibonacci “advocated the Arabic system in a book titled Liber Abaci” (p.5). Later in the 1600’s Pascal invented a mechanical calculator named the Pascaline. Many other calculating machines were made until the variable-toothed gear “resulted in a considerable reduction in size and weight for calculating machines” (p13). This made the calculation machine small enough to keep on a desk and was then mass produced by the Brunsviga company in the US.
Other forces pushing the evolution of technology was competition, specifically the cut throat competition of world war. The race to the discovery of weapons such as the Atom Bomb was fueled by extensive government funding to produce some of the fastest technological improvements and discovery in the history of mankind. “World war II was fought on battlefields and in the laboratory” (p. 47). Inventions such as the radar, computers, jet airplanes, short range missiles, and the atomic bomb were created and improved during this time. As the war created a demand for these improvements scientists were provided with any resource they needed to achieve it. One of the most important discoveries of the time was the transistor by “Bell telephone laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey where the theoretical physicist John Bardeen and experimental physicist Walter H. Brattain invented the point contact transistor” (p.50). As war stimulated the economy and left the country with great production power it left a supply and demand for commercial computers and electronics. This leads to the invention of RAM at IBM and the minicomputer by DEC which grew into the computer run industry we live in today.
There are many forces that pushed the human race to where it is today. Our natural craving for creating an easier life through tools and technology has made our lives an “automata, the mechanical recreation of reality” (p.2). Today our culture is based largely on what is given to us through the media, and the new means of communication and sharing information among ourselves. Never in human history has communication been so instant and interconnected over such a large geographic area and number of people. The globalization of our ideas will constantly change our culture daily as we are immersed with cultures from around the world.
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