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CS 305 Social, Ethical, and Legal Implications of Computing Chapter 1 History of Computing

Herbert G. Mayer, PSU CS status 6/24/2012 Most slides derived from prof. Wu-Chang Feng Slides 15..19 copied from prof. Harrison + Massey. CS 305 Social, Ethical, and Legal Implications of Computing Chapter 1 History of Computing. Syllabus. Impact of Technology Controlling Technology

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CS 305 Social, Ethical, and Legal Implications of Computing Chapter 1 History of Computing

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  1. Herbert G. Mayer, PSU CS status 6/24/2012 Most slides derived from prof. Wu-Chang Feng Slides 15..19 copied from prof. Harrison + Massey CS 305Social, Ethical, and LegalImplications of ComputingChapter 1History of Computing

  2. Syllabus • Impact of Technology • Controlling Technology • History of Computing • History of Communications • Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data • History of Programming Languages • History of Information Storage • Discussion for Students

  3. Impact of Technology • Technology impacts society, us, often in unforeseen ways • Examples: • Candle light  allowed us to work during hours of darkness • Invention of automobile solved transportation problems • created new ones, e.g. emissions problems, traffic deaths • but reduced the number of horse-back accidents • Digital photography eliminated chemical photography, dark rooms • bankrupted a whole industry; e.g. Kodak’s bankruptcy issues • E-mail reduced US Mail volume • Laptop computers made it handy to travel with your computer • increased neck- and back pain • Cell phones; made users feel connected, safer • Refrigerators allowed foods to last longer • freon impacted the ozone layer • Internet vastly enhanced communication

  4. Controlling Technology • Mankind, laws, dictatorships, restrictions etc. cannot really “control” inventions, but can influence the speed of deployment, or general acceptance • Nuclear power • P2P networks • Gun control • Amish • Adopting new technologies affects how people relate • Bishops meet twice a year to determine which ones to allow • Cars? No! Create more hectic life, causes danger, pollutes • Gas barbeque? Yes, brings people closer together • Telephone? No, reduces face to face communication

  5. Focus: Computer Technology

  6. History of Computing • Manual Calculators • 10 fingers: limited numeric range, fails to work in cold weather • Abacus, base 5 and 10: works well with small numbers • Mechanical Calculators • Pascal (~1643)‏ adder, invented at age 20! • Leibnitz (~1660) four function calculator • Burroughs (1890s)‏, thought a few units saturate total market • Charles Babbage (1810) Difference Engine, aborted for AE • Babbage’s Analytical Engine (AE) 1835, also never completed • Other Calculating Devices • Bouchon, Falcon, Jacques (~1710-1750) punched cards to program repeated weaving patterns • John Atanasoff (~1939) Iowa state prof. builds first digital computer • Konrad Zuse (~1940) builds first relais-based digital computer with real programming language (Plankalkül)

  7. History of Computing • Computing Innovations • Guthrie (~1873) and Edison (~1883) invent vacuum tubes that can be used as switching device • Cash register - Ritty (early 1900s)‏ • Prevent embezzlement via itemized receipts and printed logs • Track tax collected • Hollerith (~1900) punch card tabulation for census‏ • Presper Eckert and John Mauchly (~1944) build Electronic computer ENIAC • based on Atanasoff’s ideas‏ • Final US patent granted to Atanasoff in 1980s

  8. History of Computing: UNIVAC • ENIAC was basis for UNIVAC product, commercially not successful • Acquired ~1950 by Remington Rand, thus was born the first commercially successful computer corporation • Used to count votes, predict outcome of 1952 presidential election • Predicted Adlai Stevenson lead over Dwight Eisenhower in polls before election close • UNIVAC accurately predicted (with 7% of the vote counted) that Eisenhower would win in a landslide • Computer programmers of UNIVAC mistrusted their program, modified it to tilt the results more in favor of Stevenson • CBS reported the erroneous result instead of the genuine, original computation • Original prediction was accurate! • Other companies successful at building general-purpose computers: IBM, CDC, NCR, Honeywell, GE, Ferranti, HP, Digital, Amdahl, Wang, …

  9. History of Computing • Programming languages • Detail later … • Transistors and integrated circuits • Bell Labs (1948)‏ • Enabled smaller, more powerful computers • With higher reliability, critical due to large number of parts • Integral in development of Minuteman II ballistic missile • Microprocessors • Intel 4004 (1969)‏ • Eventually allowed computers in everyday devices (cell phones, mp3 players, digital cameras)‏ • Today microprocessors have > 1 Billion transistors

  10. History of Communications • Telegraph • Samuel Morse (1830s)‏ • Telegraph machine based on electricity to communicate • First line between Washington D.C. and Baltimore (1844)‏ • 200k miles of wire by 1877 • Put Pony Express out of business • Most cities developed fire alarm telegraphs • Telephone • Alexander Graham Bell (1876)‏ • Transmission of human voice electronically • Eroded? Improved? Social hierarchies • Ordinary citizens calling the governor • Telemarketers call you, while you are eating dinner at home • Loss of privacy • Operators could eavesdrop on conversations

  11. History of Communications • Typewriter (1873) and teletype (1908)‏ • Electronic transmission of typed text • Radio • Marconi (1895)‏ • Used in 1912 by Titanic to signal distress • Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” (Halloween 1938)‏ • Radio play that demonstrated the power of radio to blur lines of reality • Students: was Welles acting ethically? • Television • Nipkow (1884), Farnsworth (1927)‏ • Used to broadcast Armstrong landing on the moon (1969) • Note delay! Just in case‏! Students, was the delay ethical? • Problems with junkies? • Influences elections • East coast results influence voting on the west coast

  12. History of Communications • ARPANET • Precursor to Internet • Decentralized, packet-switched data network • Led to current Internet and its applications (E-mail, WWW)‏ • Cell phones • Other gadgets: Skype, twitter, Facebook …

  13. History of Programming Languages • Some languages: • Binary coding; then asm language; then relocatable asm • High-level programming languages, and machine independent programming languages • FORTRAN (~1956) John Backus, IBM • Lisp late 1950s • BASIC (Beginner’s All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) 1963 Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny at Darthmouth • Algol-60, committee, report 1960, Backus + Naur • Cobol (COmmon Business Oriented Language) with decimal type, created by Capt. Grace Mary Hopper US Navy • APL (A Programming Language) 1950s Kenneth Iverson IBM • Algol-W, Jovial, Algol-68, various Jovial dialects • PL/I, IBM committee language, 1960, everything except kitchen sink • C, Ada, Modula-2, Prolog, C++, Java, C# • More from students …

  14. History of Information Storage • Codex • From scrolls (BC) to durable bound volumes (~200 AD)‏ • Printing press • Gutenberg (1436)‏ • Vehicle for mass communication and dissemination of information • Martin Luther and the Reformation • Instrumental in the publication and dissemination of his theses • Unified German languages into one common language • Hypertext systems • Mennex: Information retrieval where associated documents can easily be linked to others • Led to current WWW hypertext system – Berners-Lee (1990)‏ • Search engines • Yahoo, Google, etc.

  15. Storing Data Bone carvings [20,000 BC] auxiliary storage Wax Tablets [2000BC] auxiliary storage Codex [200s] from scrolls to books The Printing Press [1436+] write once, produce many Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data

  16. Paper Tape [1870s] Punched Cards [1890s] Herman Hollerith Magnetic Storage [1920s] For audio Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data

  17. Magnetic Data Tape [1951] ~10M on a 2400’ reel Sequential access Hard Disk [1956] Sequential access! SSD drives[~2005] Random access! Storing, Organizing, Retrieving Data 17

  18. Acquiring Data Keyboarding [1920s] IBM card punch Optical Character Recognition [1950s] Speech Recognition [1961] Barcodes [1974] Storing Organizing, Retrieving Data 18

  19. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) [1980s] Video Recognition [1990s] Storing Organizing, Retrieving Data 19

  20. Discussion for Students • Are there technologies you wish had never been adopted? • Give examples of how new technologies require society to create new rules • Should ripping a CD of your own legal? Would it be legal to leave the digital copy on an open network share? Would it be legal to add it to a P2P sharing library? • Can Amazon sell your personal information to third-party partners? Should they be able to? • Who is liable for software failures that cause injury or death? • What are limits to workspace monitoring?

  21. Extra Discussion • Do you believe we are more connected or less connected with people today? (no brainer  ) • Does current level of connectivity render us more happy, less satisfied? frustrated? productive? • Should election polls close at the same time everywhere in the US? • Should one be prevented from posting content on the Internet that is legal in one country, but not in another?

  22. In-Class Exercise List the last three-five consumer electronic devices that someone in your acquaintance purchased • List benefits to society this has provided • To whom? How? • List a number of potentially harmful benefits the device has provided to you • How could this be harmful? List three computer applications that you believe have a huge impact on society • What benefits have they provided? • What harmful side-effects did they cause?

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