Does history matter?

Possibly, a person could go on with his or her life without knowing about how everything got there. Just hop into cars, read Shakespeare, go vote, see old friends, eat, and sleep. Life would move on. People live in the present and plan for the future. So why history and the past? The American Historical Association states the following reason. "History should be studied because it is essential to individuals and to society, and because it harbors beauty." History helps us understand people and societies. History helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be. For example, the book, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is a great story! How cool that Dr. Frankenstein could create a living creature from dead materials. How interesting it is that the creature became a monster. Cool story. However, as I read the book in the context of the classroom discussion on Romanticism and the history behind this era, I learned so much more from the book Frankenstein, which I put on my blog under a post titled Book Review of Frankenstein.

So, with the importance of history determined, can the same themes be applied to science and, more specifically, computing?

The computer, like English, is a tool that must be understood in depth to be useful, richer, and explored. The point being, history is important. The basic principles that existed in early computers are kept today in super computers. The better we understand the basics, the better we can apply our own knowledge to manipulate the physical world and progress. (Teach the basics at every practice) The computer and the internet are cultural as well as technical artifacts. These aspects continue to change today. An interesting article titled The Wonderful World of Early Computing outlines interesting models of computing ranging from 35,000 years ago to today...I didn't even know people lived 35,000 years go. ha

Lebombo Bones

Lebombo and Ishango Bones helped ancient bushmen calculate numbers and measure passage of time.

Abacus is an early calculator used in ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Interestingly, the abacus does not perform the computing. It only keeps track for the human. Similarities? Are there basic principles of computing here?

Antikythera Mechanism

Antikythera Mechanism is pretty cool! This "rock" is made of 30 gears and writings that helped sailors navigate the oceans. This helped calculate motion of the sun and moon against the fixed stars.

Jump further forward in time to 1623, we learn about Wilhelm Schickard's Calculating Clock. This beautiful machine could add and subtract 6 digit numbers, using a bell to notify the user of an overflow of data (machines that notify us? see this in modern times?) This invention was a huge leap to modern day computing and astronomy.

Leibniz invented a Stepped Reckoner that was capable for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Through the use of a cylinder with nine-bar shaped teeth and a stepped drum, he created this incredible calculator.

Other great inventions include the loom, Konrad Zuse's Z3 computer, and ENIAC, the world's first electronic digital computer.

Fastfoward to our time and we have supercomputers that perform multiple tasks for us. Do we know how these work? As we better understand the science and history behind these powerful machines, we will be more capable of using them and discovering more effective methods and procedures. From basic computer history and science, we now have abilities to calculate and predict protein and disease structure, reach new horizons in space exploration, communicate freely with people all over the world, and so much more.

Today's work is tomorrow's history.