we will move from beats, bytes, transistors and sensible gates, to Operating Systems, Virtual Reality and robots! We'll talk a lot, but make things clear - we CANNOT teach you how to plan. Instead, we will explore a series of computer topics as instruction and technology. Computers are the blood of today's world. If they happen suddenly, all at once, the power grid will shut down, cars will crash, planes will crash, water terminals will stop, stock markets will freeze, food trucks will not know where to bring them, too. workers would not be paid. Even most non-computer items - such as DFTBAshirts and the chair I sit in - are made in computer-operated industries. Computing has really changed almost every aspect of our lives. And this is not the first time we have seen this kind of globalization driven by technology. Progress in manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution brought a new dimension to human civilization - agriculture, industry and domestic life. The use of machinery meant higher yields and more food, more bulky goods, cheaper and faster communication and convenience, and a better standard of living.
And computer technology is doing the same thing right now - from automated farming and medical equipment, to global telecommunications and educational opportunities, as well as new frontiers like Virtual Reality and Self Driving Cars. We live in a time that can be remembered as the Age of Technology. With billions of transistors in just your smartphones, computers can seem very sophisticated, but in reality, they are not simple machines that perform complex tasks through multiple layers of output. But before we get into all that, we have to start with the origin of the computer, because even though electronic computers are new, there is no need for human computation. INTRO The first known computerized tool was the abacus, which was invented in Mesopotamia about 2500 BCE. A manual calculator, which helps to add and subtract multiple numbers. It also maintains the current state of the calculation, as does your hard drive today. The abacus was created because, the level of society was greater than one person could keep and control in his mind. There may be thousands of people in the area or tens of thousands of cattle. There are many types of abacus, but let's look at a really basic version of each line representing different strengths in general.
So one bead in the bottom row represents one unit, in the next row they represent 10, more than 100 rows, and so on. Suppose we have 3 cow heads represented by 3 beads in the bottom right row. If we were to buy 4 more cows we would just slip 4 more beads to the right and 7 in total. on the left, slide one bead on the second right row, representing ten, and add the last 2 beads to the bottom row to 12. This is especially helpful with large numbers. So if we were to add 1,251 we would just add 1 to the bottom line, 5 to the second line, 2 to the third line, and 1 to the fourth line - no need to add in our heads and abacus keeps our total. For the next 4000 years, humans invented all kinds of sophisticated computer systems, such as the astrolabe, which enabled ships to calculate their latitude at sea. Or a slide rule, to help with duplication and division.
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