Critical Analysis Part II: Computers (pp. 85-149)

If we were to credit the incredible and fascinating development of technology in the past decades, we should definitely be commemorating only a selected few. In the past generation we have been introduced to newer electronic device each and every year, and both authors of "Computers" educate us on how the major technology corporations have established a new virtual world within the second half of the life story of technology. Personally, I enjoyed this half of the book as a good part of the content primarily focused on how major corporations today like Apple, Google and Yahoo! started their dominance of the technological world.

As Swedin and Ferro continue to write about every possible technological invention that has contributed to computers, many of these inventions are now expanded on or still lasts today. For example, the Apple II which cost "$790 with 4 kilobytes of RAM" has now been developed into iMac's that have up to 27-inch screens with 4 Gigabytes of RAM. Moreover, operating systems have evolved superbly. As seen with Microsoft, who provided IBM PC's with their Windows operating system starting in the early 1980s (as early as Windows 3.0), we now have Windows 7, and XP, in which most businesses and corporations use to run their operations. Another example of an expanded or developed technology is Gopher. Gopher, founded in 1980s aimed at "finding information content on the Internet easier...by creating a massive online library" (p. 124). Sounds familiar right? Jerry Yang (Yahoo!) and Larry Page (Google) made "the web search engine business extremely competitive in the late 1900s" (p. 129) as they both created their well profited businesses, Yahoo! and Google.

Presently, there are numerous of technology companies out in the very demanding technology market, but only a couple are the dominant ones. It's obvious that those dominating companies are Apple and Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! and all of their stories to becoming powerhouses today is what made this reading exciting. The founders of all these corporations have one thing in common: they started small, and grew like a beanstalk as they all had the highest ambitions. Paul Allen and Bill Gates (Micro-Soft) were "enterprising teenagers both worked as programmers for several companies...just for the fun of it" (p. 88). Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs (Apple) both showed their impressive abilities to build homemade computers during high school, and worked in well respected companies like Hewlett Packard. In depth, Swedin and Ferro reiterate that the smaller technologies were essential to building what we have now. Companies like Compaq, Dell, Gateway; several different operating systems like Linux, Lotus and Windows; and programs like WordPerfect and Wordstar are all essential developments for our current technological world today.

After all the talk about the fierce competition that still lasts today between Apple, IBM (they have been a quiet company in the past 6 years), and Microsoft, Swedin and Ferro briefly introduce the developments of the Telephone that was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1844 that continues to be a prime source of communication today; wireless networking, that was started by Norman Abramson in 1970 started in Hawaii; and the "social standard of net etiquette" (p. 123) founded by Usenet became the start of social networking, now that we constantly are using IM language such as LOL, BRB, G2G, smiley faces, etc.

All in all, the authors of "Computers" conclude the book questioning the future of technology as we have read a long 149 pages of early technologies. Computers specifically has "accelerated the pace of technological change, so much so that some pundits predict a singularity in the near future when computers completely transform humanity's ability to manipulate reality" (p. 149) and we have now become a world stuck in a virtual world. Everything we do each day involves technology and traditional products have become obsolete. As a college student, still young and somewhat tech savvy, I am excited to see what technologies continue to make up this virtual world.

Critical Analysis: Computers (pp. 1-83)

The first half of Computers by: Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro is a very thorough introduction of how early technologies have introduced our tech savvy world today. This detailed read can be categorized into a couple genres based on the many facts consisted in each sub-chapter. Each new invention that has contributed to the developments of computers have a brief biography of the man most responsible for the founding, along with some history facts of what occurred at the time of the invention. Within the 83 pages, there were a few main concepts (inventions/developments) that I find critical to the development of computers.

First, America's involvement in wars in the 1900's seems to have a large responsibility for the rapid developments in technology. Both World War II and The Cold War ignited technological advancements. From the "ABC Computer" that primarily did calculations invented by John Vincent Atanasoff, the "ENIAC" which "created artillery ballistic tables" (p.39) invented by J. Presper Eckert, and projects that benefited Air Force tactics such as "Project Whirlwind and Sage" (p.48) are a few developments to be acknowledged. Like Swedin says, "without this Cold War- induced spending, computer technology would have developed more slowly." (p. 48) Moreover, I give a lot of credit to the early governments that ran America as they funded and continued research for better technologies. Because of the demand for more efficient technology, the American government, including the Navy, Air Force, and U.S. Department Bureaus supported inventors in their projects to a certain extent. For example, "the governments of the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies recruited their best and brightest to serve in defense-related research and development. Scientists and engineers developed more advanced computers, computer networks, the Internet, better medicines, better alloys, industrial ceramics, and technologies with no civilian use, like the neutron bomb." (p. 48) Another prime example of government involved projects was Project Whirlwind and Sage. "The Navy agreed with Forrester and cond continued to fund the expanded project...and the Navy also realized that the digital computer would be used in many other applications besides flight simulators." (p. 48)

On the other hand, Swedin and Ferro mention developments in technology that are the foundations of American culture. For instance, Silicon Valley, California, currently a technology concentrated area of the United States was the spot for developing computer hardware, and transistors. Now, Apple, Adobe Systems, HP, Intel and Yahoo! are just a few large companies based out of Silicon Valley. Not only did early technological advancements establish technology regions, but it structured the higher education system as inventors and scientists studied at schools that are now considered Ivy League. Herman Hollerith, Grace Murray Hopper and John Von Neumann are examples of ones who attended schools like Harvard, MIT and Princeton to create the elite schools they are today.