Week 1: Questions - Giant Brains

1) How was unique about Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, compared to his original Difference Engine?

The Analytical Engine did more than sequences of square like the Difference Engine. It used punched cards as a means of programming and was dreamt to be able to do numerous functions for the user.

2) What role did Ada Lovelace play in the development of the Analytical Engine?

She saw the machine at Babbage’s house and enrolled herself and his interpreter to the world. She was considered the first computer programmer.

3) How was the ENIAC computer reprogrammed?

It was manually reprogrammed by humans rewiring the whole computer through wiring diagrams.

4) Name an innovation that helped make programming faster post ENIAC (see ep. 2)

UNIVAC

5) What is it about binary counting that makes it so well suited to computers?

Binary counting made it simple because it only used 2 numbers which turned into on and off switches.

6) In what ways did UNIVAC influence the portrayal of computers in popular culture in the 1950s? Give an example. (see ep. 2)

They portrayed machines to be smarter than. After UNIVAC correctly predicted the Eisenhower election, newspapers and TV shows portrayed humans becoming inferior to computers. CBS even announced that UNIVAC was right and they were wrong.

7) Codebreaking required the automatic manipulation of symbols to unscramble messages during WWII. What was the name of the rudimentary computer at Bletchley Park in England that unscrambled Nazi codes.

Colossus

8) Alan Turing who understood the implications of such machines later went on to describe them as __________ machines.

Computing machines


GENERAL QUESTIONS

Write two paragraphs for each:

9) Describe when you first used computers and what types of tasks you performed on them.

My family first purchased our desktop computer in 1997 because my mother wanted to use it for school in place our typewriter. My mother was given a book full of ways to efficiently type and she made me use it so I could learn at a young age how to type faster. When we got internet, she made me a children’s account on AOL so that I could use the computer to do research for school and play games.

At a young age, I became the expert in the house when it came to using the computer. I not only used to research and play games, but I learned how download music and make that computer my personal storage system, radio, and resource for school. I learned about all the updates happening with the computer and learned how to use the new technologies that were coming out. To this day, my family turns to me when they come upon problems concerning their computers.

10) How restricted do you think computers are in terms of what they can do compared to how they are most often used?

I believe they are often used to serve personal and social purposes for the common owner, however, they also serve as a convenient way for most people to lead their day to day professional lives. They make it easier for people to carryout tasks for work as well as school. Computers have turned into the liaisons between people and companies through social networking, e-mail, instant messaging, and video chat.

With that being said, computers offer many functions that are continually progressing and I do not believe that they are restricted in what they can do, but that users are limiting themselves to the computers many purposes and functions. The only restriction or downfall that the computer has is that it is automating and eliminating jobs and limiting humans to digital interaction instead of personal, face-to-face interactions. People hide behind screens instead of forging relationships in person.