The History of Computing in the History of Technology
The History of Computing in the History of Technology
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| Computer history |
(Annals of the History of Computing 10(1988), 113-125)
PART :- 1
About this part :-
Introduction computer history
After surveying the current state of the literature in the history of computing, this paper discusses some of the major issues addressed by recent work in the history of
technology. It suggests aspects of the development of computing which are pertinent to those issues and hence for which that recent work could provide models of historical analysis. As a new scientific technology with unique features, computing in turn can provide new perspectives on the history of technology.
Introduction :-
Since World War II 'information' has emerged as a fundamental scientific and technological concept applied to phenomena ranging from black holes to DNA, from the organization of
cells to the processes of human thought, and from the management of corporations to the allocation of global resources. In addition to reshaping established disciplines, it has stimulated the formation of a panoply of new
subjects and areas of inquiry concerned with its structure and its role in nature and society (Machlup and Mansfeld 1983). Theories based on the concept of 'information' have so permeated modern culture that it now is widely taken to characterize our times. We live in an 'information society', an 'age of
Information'. Indeed, we look to models of information processing to explain our own patterns of thought The computer has played the central role in that tr ansfo rmat ion, both accommodating and encouraging ever broader views of 'information' and of how it can be
transformed and communicated over time and space. Since the 1950s the computer has replaced traditional methods of accounting and
cells to the processes of human thought, and from the management of corporations to the allocation of global resources. In addition to reshaping established disciplines, it has stimulated the formation of a panoply of new
subjects and areas of inquiry concerned with its structure and its role in nature and society (Machlup and Mansfeld 1983). Theories based on the concept of 'information' have so permeated modern culture that it now is widely taken to characterize our times. We live in an 'information society', an 'age of
Information'. Indeed, we look to models of information processing to explain our own patterns of thought The computer has played the central role in that tr ansfo rmat ion, both accommodating and encouraging ever broader views of 'information' and of how it can be
transformed and communicated over time and space. Since the 1950s the computer has replaced traditional methods of accounting and
record-keeping by a new industry of data
processing. As a primary vehicle of
communication over both space and time, it has come to form the core of modern
information technology. What the
English-speaking world refers to as "computer science" is known to the rest of western Europe as informatique (or Informatik or informatica). Much of the concern over information as a commodity and as a natural resource derives from the computer and from computer-based communications technology.1 Hence, the history of the computer and of computing is central to that of information science and technology, providing a thread by
which to maintain bearing while exploring the ever-growing maze of disciplines and subdisciplines that claim information as their subject.
Despite the pervasive presence of
computing in modern science and technology, not to mention modern society itself, the history of computing has yet to establish a significant presence in the history of science Mahoney
[1To characterize the unprecedented capabilities of computers linked to telecommunications, Nora and Minc (1978) coined the term télématique.]
and technology. Meetings of the History of
Science Society and the Society for the
History of Technology in recent years have included very few sessions devoted
specifically to history of computing, and few of the thematic sessions have included contributions from the perspective of computing. There is clearly a balance to be redressed here.
The status of the history of computing
within the history of technology surely reflects on both parties, but the bulk of the task of redress lies with the former. A look at the literature shows that, by and large, historians of computing are addressing few of the questions that historians of technology are now asking. It is worth looking at what those questions are and what form they might take when addressed to computing. The question is
how to bring the history of computing into line with what should be its parent discipline. Doing so will follow a two-way street: the history of computing should use models from the history of technology at the same time that we use the history of computing to test those models. In some aspects, at least, computing poses some of the major questions of the history of technology in special ways. Both fields have much to learn from the other
Part :- 2
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- The Evolution of Computing's Present History
- Computing's Present History