The Computer in Your Hands – How These Pioneers Reshaped Our

Key takeaways

You see, just like any other story, this tale also has its protagonists (many in fact), it has dreams and ambitions, success, and failures, and just like any story, it has an antagonist, albeit an unlikely one.
While it may sound strange, this computer with 256 bytes of RAM (yes, you read that right) firstshipped, with only switches and lights as the interface, and all one could do with the machine was make programs to make the lights blink.
As Turing rightly said - “We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done”.

Once upon a time… Isn’t that how all stories begin? Maybe this should too. You see, just like any other story, this tale also has its protagonists (many in fact), it has dreams and ambitions, success, and failures, and just like any story, it has an antagonist, albeit an unlikely one. This story is incredibly significant, for if it had not unfolded the way it did, the comforts we are so inherently familiar with wouldn’t have existed.

What could possibly shape our present this way? ‘Technology’ of course. Our daily existence is entangled with one piece of teach or the other. Would this have been possible if our protagonists, a group of innovators, loners, geeks, and hackers, had not had their way and gotten a computer into our homes? Perhaps not.

But is this story about computers and how they became part of our lives, say from the ’80s or ’90s? ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Yes, the personal computer gained popularity in those decades, but ‘No’, the computers’ advent is undoubtedly not so recent. We certainly cannot discount the efforts of those who came much before and set the standards in computing we follow even today. The story we are about to tell you achieved fruition in the 70s but found its feet a long, long time back, well into the 1800s, to be precise.

Chapter 1 – Charles Babbage to Turing #

In the 1830s, Charles Babbage, considered by some to be the ‘Father of the Computer’, developed a prototype for a steam-powered mathematical machine called the ‘Analytical Calculating Engine’. Along with Ada Lovelace, he spent the next 20 years or so getting the device to perform complex mathematical calculations. While their project never quite took off, it certainly set the standard for modern computer ideology.

It took another 30 odd years for their idea to find its actual application when the first computer was born out of a severe number-crunching crisis. In the 1880s, unable to tabulate the U. S Census, the government sought a faster way to complete the process, leading to Herman Hollerith’s design of the first working punch card system. It was Herman Hollerith who established the company that would later become ‘IBM’.

One world war and the Great Depression later saw the legendary Alan Turing present the notion of a ‘Universal Machine’ in the 1930s, capable of computing anything computable. If reading history is not your thing, then perhaps an evening watching the Imitation Game and Benedict Cumberbatch might give you an immense appreciation for the role Turing has played. Here is an interesting fact; Turing, an active proponent of AI, invented the’ Imitation Game’ to check a machines ability to exhibit intelligent behavior. He also referred to the test as ‘Lady Lovelace’s Objection’ as she passionately believed that computers cannot be made to think. The test is still a gold standard in determining AI, and his theory of the Universal Machine is the basis of modern-day ‘Computer Science.’

These events are critical in history because if these three, amongst many, had not stepped in with their revolutionary ideas, then the modern-day foundation of computers would never have been set. And their biggest hindrance? Technology itself, or rather the lack of it. Yes, there were glimmers of a technological future, but with electricity itself coming into American Homes, on a larger scale, only around the 1940s, things were still relatively primitive. But the 1950s was about to help things in a big way.

Chapter 2 - Setting the Stage #

By the 1950’s we were firmly in the midst of the industrial revolution, and innovation was the name of the game. The funding of WWII had provided the ideal springboard for technology. Prodigious inventions and modernization swept the world and gave way to the first commercial computer in 1952 and a host of other discoveries. From Hewlett Packard’s ground-breaking electronic innovations to computer languages and from Mainframes to the integrated circuit known popularly as the computer chip, the era of electronic computing had arrived, and so had Silicon Valley.

The 1960s welcomed the prototype of the modern computer, with a mouse and a graphical user interface. We saw significant headway with Intel unveiling the DRAM chip, IBM inventing the ‘floppy disk’, and Xerox developing the Ethernet for connectivity. Commercial computers were on a roll, but now the stage had been set for something bigger.

Chapter 3 - The Birth of The Personal Computer #

The second half of the 70s dramatically reshaped the ‘computer’. A slew of minicomputers hit the market, and while calling them mini from today’s point of view might be a bit of an exaggeration, the reality was they were not taking up entire walls of a room.

The Altair 8800 took the credit for being the world’s first minicomputer. A part of a hobby kit requiring assembly, it was designed by a little-known company called ‘MITS’. By then, the interest in owning a computer was already relatively high, and Altair’s entry price made it the most attractive new-age teach to own.

The Altair did not come with a keyboard or even a monitor, for that matter. While it may sound strange, this computer with 256 bytes of RAM (yes, you read that right) firstshipped, with only switches and lights as the interface, and all one could do with the machine was make programs to make the lights blink. And yet, it was a huge success, so much so that a short while later, MITS came up with the Altair 8800b, and this time around with significant upgrades.

Seeing the opportunity to make the computer more attractive to hobbyists, Paul Allen and Bill Gates offered to write an interpreter for this computer in ‘BASIC’. After their success with this endeavor, they formed Microsoft on April 4th, 1975.

Chapter 4 - Apple Takes the Biggest Slice of The Pie #

On April Fools Day of 1976, the world’s most valuable brand as of 2021 was established. Ten days later, Apple released the Apple Computer, more popularly known as Apple-1. While famous, it was the Apple II’s launch in 1977 that got the ball rolling in the field of teach. Apple II was the company’s first consumer product designed to be used right out of the box and rapidly became Americans first home computer.

In 1981, IBM introduced its own computer, code-named “Acorn”. One of the first computers to use integrated third-party devices and software, it was the ‘Acorn’, which popularized the term ‘PC’.

Chapter 5 – The Machine of The Year is…. #

By 1984, Apple II was a humongous success. Having sold almost 2 million units, and with more and more businesses using computers, the personal computer had become a must-have accessory.

Apple eventually launched Lisa in 1983, a significant idea that ‘failed’. Its learning translated to the innovation of ‘Macintosh’ in 1984, which became the PC industry’s longest-running, most influential line of computers. Conceptually, every modern PC — including those that run Windows and Linux — descends from it. By 1984, we had two teach camps – The MAC and The PC, both vying for top accolades.

In an interview with Newsweek in 1984, Steve Jobs made a fascinating observation months after the Mac was introduced. “The next stage (of computers) is going to be as ‘agents.’”, said Jobs, “… Rather than help you, it will begin to guide you through large amounts of information. It will almost be like you have a little friend inside that box,” he continued. Prophetic words indeed.

Chapter 6 – The Agent That Upscale Our Lives #

The computers popularity picked up primarily because of interest in the ease of computing numbers. VisiCalc, introduced in 1976, was the software that accountants dreamed of. From there, the race was on - Word processing, Easy Writer, Lotus 123, all came with better, more evolutionary features, and the software wars had started.

But the messiah that emerged as the stalwart of all things software was Microsoft Windows. While the Mac came with the classic Mac OS, other personal computers made by IBM, Compaq, HP all had to contend with the lack of a user-friendly graphical user interface. Windows filled a gaping hole in that space, steadily becoming the OS of choice in the ’90s.

Conclusion #

For most millennial, the period from the second half of the 1980s is still relatively fresh in memory. We saw advances in every aspect of computing. Computers went from walls to desks to your hands. From the dot-com era to the widespread acceptance of the internet and from the iPod to advances in AI, technology grew mufti-folds.

The tenacity and persistence of Turing, Jobs, Gates, and many more paid off and resulted in our better state of existence. Now we stand at another exciting juncture in history, with AI, IoT, and Big Data promising better productivity, efficacy, and connectivity.

So, this cannot really be a conclusion, for the story has only just begun. Its new chapters are being written by those who continue to tread our teach protagonists’ paths, even as we speak. As Turing rightly said - “We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done”.

Related reading

Once upon a time… Isn’t that how all stories begin? #

You see, just like any other story, this tale also has its protagonists (many in fact), it has dreams and ambitions, success, and failures, and just like any story, it has an antagonist, albeit an unlikely one.

But is this story about computers and how they became part of our lives, say from the ’80s or ’90s? #

Yes, the personal computer gained popularity in those decades, but ‘No’, the computers’ advent is undoubtedly not so recent. We certainly cannot discount the efforts of those who came much before and set the standards in computing we follow even today.

And their biggest hindrance? #

Technology itself, or rather the lack of it. Yes, there were glimmers of a technological future, but with electricity itself coming into American Homes, on a larger scale, only around the 1940s, things were still relatively primitive.