Artifacts in Computer Science

A dramatic transformation in the advancement of technology has continued to evolve since the 1950’s. As computers started out, they were very expensive to make, they were slow and the computers were very basic. Now in days people can carry computers in their backpack but in the 90s, the computers would take up a whole room. The reason their computers were so large was because they required magnetic drums to store memory for the computer and vacuum tubes as switches and amplifiers. Today, these devices are built into our computers and other time they made them more compact. Also, as time went on, we received faster and more advanced technology. We are still using computers from the 1950s today; they are just highly advanced versions of their

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Science & Technology have grown-up a radical contribution to industry, and the personal computer has become a defining symbol of our age. In 1940, it was not recognized that Science & Technology would develop into an innovative way that would intensely affect business, trade, the monetary world, administration, discipline, education, communications, entertainment, and society as a whole. Today, information technology and its applications persist to go forward progressively. Computers and communication technology will become even more precious to civilization as they are ever more able to distinguish

Currently, computers are used for everything in life. For example, from researching for a large essay project to playing video games with friends. “From the outset, computers were weighed for both military and commercial significance, and hence they straddled the very institutional boundaries that central to this study. It is also significant that computers became valuable research instruments in nearly all disciplines.” (Akera, 2). The first digital computer was constructed in 1946 by John Mauchly, a professor, and Presper Eckert, an inventor. “They met by chance in 1941 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Engineering. They soon developed a revolutionary vision: to use electricity as a means of computing--in other words, to make electricity "think."” (McCartney, 1). They were ignored by their colleagues, but in 1943 they were becoming more well known and was funded by the U.S Army. The U.S Army was seeking for a contraption that can quickly calculate ballistic missile trajectories in wartime Europe and Africa (McCartney, 1). John Mauchly and Presper Eckert led a team that constructed the computer that occupied 1,800 square feet and weighed thirty tons. They named the large computer, ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The process of building this machine was not an effortless task, Mauchly and Presper and their team had to overcome many problems

“We can see only a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” Alan Turing, a forgotten hero, said this when challenged with the prospect of technology that could think for itself. This figure hidden in the shadows of history has impacted every aspect  of society. Because of his accomplishments in the realm of computing, the vast majority of the population has handled an electronic device. Turing, truly a catalyst for social change, who society tried to bury because of his homosexuality, a crime of gross indecency in the United Kingdom until 1967 is responsible for the electronic-reliant population the majority of humanity lives in today (“Alan Turing: Creator of modern computing”).

The computing innovation represented by my computational artifact is the Amazon Echo. The Amazon Echo’s intended purpose and function is to help with household activities and do other tasks by responding to “Alexa”. My computational artifact accurately displays the Amazon Echo’s function because it provides an explanation of how it works. I also compared it to a known rival, google home, which illustrated its abilities while adding details to its function. My artifact accurately displays the echo’s effect because it shows the large amount of consumers for the product over the past two years which depicts its impactful effect on society.

Artifacts, artifacts can be a variety of things but they have one thing in common they’re man made. I would like to talk about a few artifacts I own, first a big glass and wooden case.This is a man made artifact, it was built about 30 years ago and I still use 30 years later, I use it to keep trophies and important things in the case. One reason it is important to me is because it was built by my father and his grandfather, my great grandfather. This is also important because of it age and it’s one of the first thing my dad ever built. In conclusion, this artifact is important to me as well as my father for multiple reasons.

Throughout the known history of the world, humans and technology have progressed side by side. Many believe technology prolongs human challenges and development in the twenty-first century because of the way it distracts people from daily life activities. Though it has been questioned of value, the inclusion of new technology challenges what humans can do through innovative ideas like the computer and cell phones and other devices such as 3D printers.One way new technology has challenged human capability was the invention of computers. Before the computer became available, many people had to use other applications for directions, remembering things, typewriters for typing, and even the land line telephones. Computers were groundbreaking technology

Computers have been an indispensable aspect of life for what seems forever. But, this was not always the case. All of the things that seem like they are natural components to a computers interface like a mouse, keyboard, and the internet were just toys for tinkering about 30 years ago. The man who made the first computer controlled it with just a series of switches and displayed data on a few labeled LED lights. Since the invention of the electronic computer inventors have constantly been pushing forwards on every front making them faster, smaller, and less expensive. But, more importantly then how we have changed computers is how computers have changed us. Computers have changed almost every aspect of life as we know it today including

　　The microelectronic revolution started when they were using the vacuum tubes it consume a lot of power supply. As a comparison the ENIAC used about 2000 times as much electricity as the modern laptop. Not just that, the modern term for a problem that holds up a computer program is a “bug”. Popular legend has it that this word entered the vocabulary of computer programmers sometimes in the 1950s when moths, attracted by the glowing lights of vacuum tubes, flew inside machines and caused a short circuit. In order to create more advance computer, would have needed hundreds of thousands or even millions of tubes, which would have been

For anyone with just a cursory understanding of electronic engineering, it's something too easy to take for granted. Laptops just turn on and surf the web, upload the latest software and come in staggeringly compact sizes. Remote controlled cars give the user an amount of autonomy and options that would have been unheard of decades ago, and mobile phones rival the processing speeds, capabilities and options of most computers. The magic behind electrical engineering was never something that I took for granted. As Steve Jobs famously said, ""What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds." (film "Memory & Imagination," 1990)" (cnn.com, 2012). I understood, even as a young boy, that there were things inside of machines that made them work, and I longed to understand what those things were and how they functioned. As a child, I loved to take things apart and see if I could get them to work properly. For example, I was always ripping apart calculators from school or the alarm clock in my bedroom. My mother thought I was trying to break these things, but I was really just trying to see if I could understand how they worked and put them back together myself, so that they still worked properly.

Computers are everywhere, they are in homes, they are at schools, and most of people even carry them around on us everyday. But it was not always like this. As strange as this might sound, there was a time when a single computer would take up an entire room and still not be able to do a fraction of what an iphone can do. So how did people get from a computer taking up an entire room just to do basic things, from being able to do about anything on a small device in peoples pockets? Well, the most basic answer is advancement; the human race is moving forward everyday and what is in movies, about having holographs and robots, are a lot closer than many may think. This will be a guide through time itself as it will look at some of the first

Technology continues to save the lives of many, by creating jobs that allow people to continue and support their family, as well as being able to provide support for those in a life-or-death situation when it comes down to the essentials such as food, water, and housing. Some fortunate people fail to realize how difficult it really is to obtain such aid. While technology has helped to eradicate useless jobs and help to decrease labor costs, it has resulted in the creation new useful jobs, such as manufacturing the actual technology to be used in a computer, and a computer specialist field that help to put the newly-made computers to use. Thus, if a job is able to be taken over by a machine that is incapable of independent thought, the job may be less suitable for a human being. While ATMs have replaced bank-tellers, we now have newly found jobs which focus on repairing, and manufacturing the ATM machines; it works like a two-edged sword.

It is very hard to imagine a world without computers! Everywhere you look computers are at work attempting to provide one service or another and make our lives easier. Computers, in one form or another can be found in vehicles, from cars, trucks and motorcycles to larger scale methods of transportation such as airplanes and trains. They are in your television set, your VCR, etc. But when we conjure up the image of a computer usually our first thought is of a PC, otherwise known as a personal computer. Personal computers have completely revolutionized the way the world, lives, works and conducts business. Strictly-speaking, computers arrived on the scene way back in 1936 when one Konrad Zuse produced what was then called the Z1 computer.

The very first electronic computers were enormous, too, but were able to outperform mechanical computers easily. These computers were not used for surfing the web, or playing games, but to help do calculations for import tasks such as, missal placement during World War II, and Presidential election predictions. Their accuracy and precision was mind-blowing to say the least. The Computer History Museum’s webpage says, “The result was ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), built between 1943 and 1945—the first large-scale computer to run at electronic speed without being slowed by any mechanical parts” (Paragraph 3). This computer was a product of hard work at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The massive machine used vacuum tubes, as it predated the time when William Shockley and his team invented the transistor, which would ultimately go on to affect the computer world as it is known today.

Computers were designed to make human function easier and more convenient. The capabilities of modern computers go above and beyond their original expectations and have constantly provided intelligence, convenience, and entertainment to people and businesses. The rate at which technology is increasing is interesting to some and scary to others. The speed and accuracy of machines has enhanced the world as we know it. People are constantly searching for ways to make computers better, but humanity has still not reached the full capability of technology. There is no way to tell if people will ever reach full technological capability, or if we even want to venture that far, but technology has no known limit, so humanity will work continuously to make new discoveries that change the way we look at the world.