Conclusion: The Real Computer Revolution part :- 6
Conclusion: The Real ComputerRevolution
PART :- 6
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Conclusion: The Real Computer Revolution
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| Conclusion: The Real Computer Revolution |
We can take this example a step farther. From various perspectives, people have been drawn to compare the computer to the automobile. Apple, Atari, and others have boasted of creating the Model T of microcomputers, clearly intending to convey the image of a car in every garage, an automobile that everyone could drive, a machine that reshaped American life. The software engineers who invoke the image of mass production have it inseparably
linked in their minds to the automobile and its interchangeable variations on a standard theme.
The two analogies serve different aims within the computer industry, the first looking to the microcomputer as an object of mass consumption, the second to software systems as objects of mass production. But they share the vision of a society radically altered by a
new technology. Beneath the comparison lies the conviction that the computer is bringing about a revolution as profound as that triggered by the automobile. The comparison between the machines is fascinating in itself. Just how does one weigh the PC against the PT (personal transporter)?19 For that matter, which PC is the Model T: the Apple ][, the IBM, the Atari ST, the Macintosh? Yet the question is deeper than that. What would it mean for a microcomputer to play the role of the Model T in determining new social, economic, and political patterns? The historical term in that comparison is not the Model T, but Middletown (Lynd and Lynd 1929), where in less than forty years "high-speed steel and Ford cars" had Fundamentally changed the nature of work and the lives of the workers. Where is the Middletown of today, similarly transformed by the presence of the microcomputer? Where would one look? How would one identify the changes? What patterns of social and i ntell ectual behavior mark such Transformation? In short, how does one compare technological societies? That is one of the "big questions" for historians of technology, and it is only in the context of the history of technology that it will be answered for the computer.
new technology. Beneath the comparison lies the conviction that the computer is bringing about a revolution as profound as that triggered by the automobile. The comparison between the machines is fascinating in itself. Just how does one weigh the PC against the PT (personal transporter)?19 For that matter, which PC is the Model T: the Apple ][, the IBM, the Atari ST, the Macintosh? Yet the question is deeper than that. What would it mean for a microcomputer to play the role of the Model T in determining new social, economic, and political patterns? The historical term in that comparison is not the Model T, but Middletown (Lynd and Lynd 1929), where in less than forty years "high-speed steel and Ford cars" had Fundamentally changed the nature of work and the lives of the workers. Where is the Middletown of today, similarly transformed by the presence of the microcomputer? Where would one look? How would one identify the changes? What patterns of social and i ntell ectual behavior mark such Transformation? In short, how does one compare technological societies? That is one of the "big questions" for historians of technology, and it is only in the context of the history of technology that it will be answered for the computer.
From the very beginning, the computer has borne the label "revolutionary". Even as the first commercial machines were
being delivered, commentators were extolling or fretting over the radical changes the widespread use of computers would entail, and few doubted their use would be widespread. The computer directed people's eyes toward the future, and a few thousand bytes of memory seemed space enough for the solution of almost any problem. On that both enthusiasts and critics could agree. Computing meant unprecedented power for science, industry, and business, and with the power came difficulties and dangers that seemed equally unprecedented. By its nature as well as by its youth, the computer appeared to have no history.
being delivered, commentators were extolling or fretting over the radical changes the widespread use of computers would entail, and few doubted their use would be widespread. The computer directed people's eyes toward the future, and a few thousand bytes of memory seemed space enough for the solution of almost any problem. On that both enthusiasts and critics could agree. Computing meant unprecedented power for science, industry, and business, and with the power came difficulties and dangers that seemed equally unprecedented. By its nature as well as by its youth, the computer appeared to have no history.
Yet, "revolution" is an essentially historical concept (Cohen 1986). Even when turning things on their head, one can only define what is new by what is old, and innovation, however imaginative, can only proceed from what exists. The computer had
a history out of which it emerged as a new device, and computing took shape from other, continuing activities, each with its own historical momentum. As the world of the computer acquired its own form, it remained embedded in the worlds of science, Technology, industry, and business which structured computing even as they changed in response to it. In doing so they linked the history of computing to their own histories, which in turn reflected the presence of a Fundamentally new resource.
a history out of which it emerged as a new device, and computing took shape from other, continuing activities, each with its own historical momentum. As the world of the computer acquired its own form, it remained embedded in the worlds of science, Technology, industry, and business which structured computing even as they changed in response to it. In doing so they linked the history of computing to their own histories, which in turn reflected the presence of a Fundamentally new resource.
What is truly revolutionary about the
computer will become clear only when computing acquires a proper history, one that ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers the precedents that make its innovations significant. Pursued within the larger enterprise of the history of technology, the history of computing will acquire the context of place and time that gives history meaning
computer will become clear only when computing acquires a proper history, one that ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers the precedents that make its innovations significant. Pursued within the larger enterprise of the history of technology, the history of computing will acquire the context of place and time that gives history meaning
19The latter designation stems from Frand (1983).