Tag: Technology

The Modern World of Computing

by Matt, posted in Life, Technology

Computer Development

The year 2025 is a long way a way from the Post World War 2 era of when the computer was invented. Much of the modern technology involved invention of the computer was done from the invention of the Model K Adder by George Stibitz in 1936 to the public release of ENIAC in 1946. Computers were a technology that all sides of the war were pursuing, the UK had Colossus and Germany had their own as well. Initially developed by the military, they allowed for complex calculations that were often the case used for ballistics or similar calculations for weapons of war. Then, the war ended, and the transistor was developed, this lead to the Postwar period and the development of the computer as we know it.

Computers at the time were straight out of science fiction, they encompassed entire rooms to do seemingly simple calculations. The general public had no idea what a Transistor, Boolean Logic, or a Programmer actually did. Besides Math calculations, what could a computer do? Why would they ever matter?

Boolean Logic is the basis of computing

Commercial computers began to make their appearance in the early 1950’s, there was UNIVAC and the appearance of computers on campuses around the world. MIT’s is possibly the most famous example. It has been said in lore that students would program in sprints lasting more than a days and then sleep during class in order to live out their fantasy of programming a computer. Time shares were invented which enabled many programmers to use one computer, in which what program was being run was switched many times a second between the different computer terminals.

It was a decade that catalyzed the computer into the common perception, they began to arrive in industry through companies like IBM and programming languages like Fortran and Lisp which began to be used instead of Assembly Language type in computer programs. Punch cards were a common method of inputting data and programs, along with Teletape and others.

Computers think in assembly, humans think in programming languages

It was a time before GUI’s, a time when everything that a computer could do could be printed with text on a modern day printer, in black and white. The Graphical User Interface (GUI), is what most computer users today see as how they interact with computers. But, in the history of computing, they hadn’t yet been invented. The GUI happened in about 1963, with Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad, but the world of programming and the development of computer technology had gone from being a concept from Science Fiction, to a real world device that was changing the very nature of Science and Technology by the end of this era. Computers weren’t invented in isolation though, they were invented in the Postwar era, a time when war was far from over.

World History from the Postwar Era to the Apollo Missions

After World War 2 ended in 1945, the world was divided into two main superpowers, The West, and the Soviet Union. Although allied during the war, the gloves came off, quite possible with the “Iron Curtain” speech by Winston Churchill, and the world was again divided. The mortal arms race started in Japan in 1945 but had soon overtaken both America and the Soviet Union with an ill planned and conceived acquiring of weapons of terrifying destructive capabilities. As great as the theories of what the computer could do were, they were often overshadowed by the destructive capabilities of The Bomb. The world feared a direct conflict between the two super powers, and what ever hopes there were for peace were eradicated by the 1950’s, both sides had The Bomb.

War is the pointless pursuit of your countries continuation

The Truman Doctrine in 1947 started The Wests own war against the Soviets, and the Warsaw Pact and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) were setup to allow both sides to fight for their respective ideologies. Socialists were from the point of view that the worker, and society, was the states responsibility to support, in the hopes that it made the world a better place. The West saw and argued that freedom and the rights of the individual were the main points of what a government should protect. Both were probably right and are still arguably right to this day but the war wasn’t fought with words or philosophical arguments, it was found with guns, tanks, and bombs. It was a war that spread across the planet from the very peace treaty of the last, and was fought 24/7 by both sides, but in this war, it is plainly evident that the population of the world lost. Starvation and poverty was common, India gained independence and so did much of the world, but the actual reality was more and more money was being given to the military, to build more and more bombs.

The computer was used in both war and peace, but due to the overlap, it was often both. The space race started when Sputnik was launched by the Soviet Union unleashing the next era of innovation. The computer and the military were involved at many levels, possibly all levels, and it was a turning point for humanity and the human race. The first images for Earth came back from satellites, and no longer were we living in a country, we were living on a planet that could now be viewed from the prospective of a Cosmonaut or an Astronaut.

Earth might be a pale blue marble, but it could also be the only pale blue marble

A global species, mankind had pushed the very fabric of what was possible when peace was achieved. We had developed machines to calculate Chess playing programs, and developed the means to explore beyond the atmosphere. We also discovered DNA and the fabric of what life is made up of. Humans were included, and as the scientists began to see us as just another animal, maybe that wasn’t the case. Maybe we were and maybe we weren’t. At least we were the first animal to space, and the first molecules to calculate PI to 1000 decimal places. We were all that was known, and possibly all that while ever be, both for the good and bad.

Was being human, what we all shared, sacred? Was the global population ready to accept people from other countries as if they were from their own? What about Earth made for the beauty of life. And what about Earth, made a setting for the apocalypse of war. Are humans destructive in nature? Yes, that was obvious. But could technology and science help the human species? If so, how?

The computer was thought to usher in a tech utopia, although in reality it was probably the opposite

Back to the computer, could a machine that calculates complex math equations impact the average persons life? Could it stop war? Could it wage one? What could a computer actually do to help the average person? While, back then, one sure couldn’t fit in your pocket. As the public braced for the end of the world during the 1960’s, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on The Moon, and the Vietnam War started, for good and for bad, electronics and computation were still not common in the average person’s life, unlike today. History tells a tale that is intricate and complex, and repetitive, and like many of the early computer “hackers”, I too wish for a better world brought about by computing and all the possibilities that comes with it but computers alone while never bring about that dream, without love for humanity and the human race.

The Internet as a Means of Self Expression

by Matt, posted in Life, Technology

It is the year 2024, almost halfway through the decade. Within a month presents while be bought, gifts while be wrapped, alcohol while be drunk and the new year will arrive. With it comes the facts of this day and age, five billion people are online and have internet. Somewhere around four or more billion people have a smartphone with internet access, and more time is spent on the internet than watching cable television. The internet is a strange invention, you don’t just consume content like a television, newspaper, or book, but contribute back as easily as typing a YouTube comment or liking a Tweet. It allows humans from any culture, any society, and any background to not only browse the internet, but shape and form it as well.

The Internet can change interaction

What does it take to make an internet site? All, it takes is an internet connection and a computer; either Windows, Linux, or macOS, and time. You first need to figure out the basics of HTML, then, some CSS, and if you are feeling lucky you can dabble with JavaScript. HTML is the backbone of the web. It stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is an electronic document that can be sent from the server to the client (you). It uses tags which look like “<h1>This is a Heading</h1>” to enable the transfer of information to your web browser. CSS is the look and feel of the web, it is how you can style your website to look like a graphic artist’s dream or nightmare. It allows the structure of the internet (HTML) to look different by affecting the styling of HTML elements. JavaScript is the interactivity like Facebook’s infinite scroll newsfeed. That at its basics is all that is sent from the server to your internet browser. That is how the web works. That is the complexity and simplicity of the internet.

Can anyone create a website?

Anyways, back to the point of this blog post, if anyone can make a website and anyone can be online, what does it mean to express yourself as a individual human being in the modern age? Are we content to simply consume the web, or do we also want to contribute back? And, if we want to contribute back, with the rise of large tech companies, how do we know that we can without being inhibited by censorship from companies or states? What are the rules underpinning the internet?

Does self expression cost money?

Sure, it is great to imagine that anyone can be on Facebook, but, in actuality, is it possible to be banned? Is it possible to be blacklisted from Google? And does Twitter really need to change its name. Is it possible to release a CD on Spotify and it never be heard? Is it every one’s dream who spends time on YouTube to have their own YouTube channel, in theory that is great, but imagine this scenario: you develop a channel as large as Mr. Beasts only to be thrown aside by the YouTube algorithm over something controversial. And, if that is possible, who is to say it is done for a good reason, whether on YouTube or elsewhere, and if that can be done, is it being done as we speak? Right now, are there people who are banned from Facebook? Websites that are banned by Bing? Or even YouTube channels blacklisted for no good reason. Even if there is a good reason to ban someone, where does self-expression start, and censorship stop? What are the rules of the actuality of the internet?

If the rules aren’t known, how do we know they are being followed?

At the end of the day, the world of the web is managed by a few dozen large internet companies for the western English language web. The rules are often stipulated in their terms of service but those are long are complicated to read, even if they are read, are they what is actually followed or is there some element of the unknown involved. When you have poured your heart and soul into your chosen hobby and want to share it with the world, why should a corporation theoretically have the right to destroy your life and your means of individual self expression. With little to no court cases based around internet organizations blacklisting individuals or even small companies, we are left with two options: either they don’t ban people, or they do. If they don’t, how come? What are the actual rules of the world wide web. And, if they do, how is that building an open an inclusive society of the future. How is that respecting the rights of the individual and the whole of society.

The web is a fundamental human right

I believe, that if what we are aiming for with the internet is to build a better future than is possible without digital technology, then there needs to be some actual laws underpinning of human self-expression on the internet. If it were possible to establish such laws that all web sites must follow, then we would need to make sure that the laws are actually followed by every major web site. At the end of the day, there are laws that involve website cookies and internet privacy that are commonly followed on the web, but as our civilization goes online, I hope we can ensure no one gets left behind. With the dawn of the digital comes a change in how we live our lives and how we interact with each other. Individual self-expression is just as important as money, and our humanity needs to be respected as we express ourselves online and embark on the frontier of tomorrow.

The World Anew

by Matt, posted in Technology
The challenges that await us everyday become less and less demanding with each invention of something new. Something fresh is always on the edge of technology and with it a task that before was hard becomes easier. This has been common for a long time, possibly since fire, possibly since humans spoke in rhyme. To really observe a single aspect of our technological life, brings within focus the journey it took in being made a thing, both the ideas generated in the past and the advancement upon advancement that needed to be made. Life has a tree of evolution, technology has the path of invention, with each new node building on the previous and leading into what seemed impossible, only a short time ago.
Without technology, our world would be dark
The standard smartphone seems simple when operated, it is easy to learn its operations, and still has all the features of a standard phone. It relies on so many underpinning technologies that broken down would take a book, possibly an app to describe. The glass, in its most current form, uses not just simple sand melted down but has consistent electrical properties for touch sensitivity and at the same time a special scratch resistant coating that is at the forefront of Materials Engineering. Something like an Android phone may use digital communication, yet it can still call a home phone line, it still has similar features, and although everything on it is done in a slightly different way it is at its basics a phone, with internet, and apps. Some of the components on it are custom designed such as the case, and the others are other inventions all formed together to make something new. Each component has a long history and chain connected to it dating back as far back as invention itself.
Every invention has its parts
It is amazing to think that not only is everything in the digital world as complex as inanimate objects get, it is also guaranteed given a year or two it will be improved upon. That is what humans do, and seem to do very well, take something whether alone or in a team and improve upon it, combine new pieces into one, and add a bit of their own ingenuity. There are many documentaries about nature and there are some about technology and the two have a slightly overlapping characteristic. They both tell the tale of how a new thing is born from an old thing. On one hand we have evolution, which adapts and splits organisms to better suit their environment, and on the other we have inventions, which adapt and splits the environment to better suit the organism.
Underpinning it all is the human mind
The beauty of the modern world is everywhere, our daily lives are touched by works of art, our minds are allowed the inter-connectivity they seek, we have many things to occupy our time, and if you really think about it the future will be the same. There will be more invention, more ideas, more art, more beauty, less danger, and more nature. Whether we are watching movies on a TV, or using the latest augmented reality app, it stands to reason those inventions will come from the past. They will span time, space, and physics, will occupy our minds and our hands, they will influence what we think and do, and if anything, they will make the world more beautiful too.

Ideas can sculpt the future