Computers and Their Influence on Human Development

This is far more accurate than the standard pocket calculators of today. It is often said that Babbages thinking was a hundred years ahead of its time.
             Skipping ahead about a hundred years to the writing of Claude E. Shannon's masters thesis,.
             we can see how he showed that mathematician George Booles concepts of true and false could be used to represent the functions of switches in electronic circuits. Shannon's thesis has been called the most important masters thesis of the twentieth century by many leading scientists. To understand why this is felt, know that electronics engineers still use these techniques as a cornerstone for their design of electronic circuits today. .
             Jumping ahead once more to 1971,we see the invention of the first microprocessors. The invention of the microprocessor was unlikely ,in that, until the late 1960s computers were so expensive,big,and hard to use that the few that were around were considered more than enough. The only people who used them,and there few, had the only working knowledge of how to use them. These people were at colleges and universities, and it was thought that these institutions would be the only places computers would ever be needed. It was around 1974 that Intel introduced the first general purpose microprocessor. This is the same processor that was in the first home computers. This progress is mind boggling, considering that most of the significant advances have taken place within just the last fifty years!.
             This brief history of computers is by no means comprehensive. This is merely a relevant overview meant to give you an idea of the progress made within just the last 2500 years. This progress is made even more astounding when it is clarified even further to just the invention of what we would call a modern computer. The modern computer ,or the design for one, has only been around for approximately 50-60 years. It is not hard using the brief history given, to extrapolate that with the increase of computing power there has,and will continue to be, an increase in computer usage.