Assignment Number – 01

“Essay on Computers and Human Society”

Course Code: SWRK4002

Submitted
By

Amit Kumar
Department of Interventional Social Work
Roll Number-MGCU2017SWRK4001

Submitted to

Digvijoy Phukan, Phd

Assistant Professor
Mahatma Gandhi Central University
Motihari, Bihar
Q. Write a short essay on Computers and Human Society.

{The essay should touch upon the following points:

a) History of computers

b) Impact of computers on human society

c) Computers and future of human society.

1. Minimum Words: 1000

2. All assignment should be in e-version.

3. Assignments with more than 20 percent plagiarized content will be negatively marked.}
Introduction

The Universe has produced many wonders and one of them is Computer. Computer is leading
the whole universe and have become the most empowering tool ever been discovered, but I quote
John F. Kennedy “Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all”

What Computer is: A computer is a programmable device which manipulates data or

information. A Computer accepts data into binary numbers and gets processed to produce
information or output. Computer uses the combination of hardware and software. Hardware is
physical part of any computer, which includes all of the computer’s internal components and
external parts like keyboard, mouse and monitor etc. while software is set of instructions that
tells the hardware what to do such as browser, media player or word processor.

Etymology: As per the Oxford English dictionary the word computer was firstly used in 1613 in
a book called “the Yong Mans Gleanings” written by Richard Braithwait.

According to online etymology dictionary the word computer is used in the 1640s meaning one
who computes a reckoner or one whose job is to make mathematical calculations.

Hypothetically, Computer stands for Common Operating Machine Particularly Used for Trade,
Education and Research.

History of computer

A computer has not been invented over a single night. As we have taken computers for granted
today in our everyday activities, the concepts and ideas behind computers have quite a bit of
history - time for a whirlwind tour of how we got to the age of email, YouTube and Whatsapp.

Early computing devices

Human attempts to develop this electronic device go back as far as 2400 BC when the Abacus
(the first known calculator) was invented in Babylonia. In 500 BC and 300 BC, Panini and
Pingala both introduced the forerunner to modern formal language theory and invented binary
number system respectively. The mechanism of 100 BC Antikythera, an ancient technology was
designed to calculate astronomical positions had helped to develop the very first ancient analog
computer.

1600-1700 AD

The development of computer accelerated from the early 17th century when Braithwait coined
the phrase Computer in his book. In 1614, the logarithmic process was invented by John Napier.
The slide rule invented in 1621, remained widely used until the emergence of electronic
calculators in the 1970s. The speeding clock invented by Wilhelm Schickard and the use of
binary by Francis Bacon in 1623 has opened the new dimension of astronomical table
calculations. In 1642, in an effort to ease his father's endless, exhausting calculations, and
recalculations, Blaise Pascal constructed a mechanical calculator doing addition and subtraction,
called Pascal's calculator or the Pascaline. A non-decimal adding machine was invented in 1666
crediting computing technology to be developed early.

1701- 1800 AD

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who invented the Binary System in 1703 is being studied as the
foundation of virtually all modern computers architectures. The father of computer, Charles
Babbage had taken birth on 24th December 1791.

1800- 1900 AD

Ada who worked with Charles Babbage was born on 10th December, 1815. The first
commercially successful mechanical calculator, the Arithmometer was patented in France in
1820 AD. In 1822, Charles Babbage proposed the construction of machines for use in the
"computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". Charles Babbage conceived an
analytical engine in paper, which was to be programmed with punched cards to carry out
calculations in 1837. Almost all computers in today’s world are based on the basic idea of him
that makes him the father of Computer. Arithmometer, the first commercially successful
mechanical calculator was launched in 1851.

Herman Hollerith was born 29th February 1860, who later developed a mechanical tabulator
based on punched cards in order to tabulate statistics data easily. Christopher Sholes invented
QUERTY keyboards for the typing in 1873. Thomas Watson, an insightful business man who
directed the IBM (International Business Machine) in the electronic age was born in 1874. In
1878, Willgodt T. Odhner was allowed a patent for a calculating machine for multiplications. In
1883, Scheutz invented the first printing calculator. In 1887, Introduction of the Comptometer by
Felt & Tarrant Co., Dorr E. Felt was granted a patent for the Comptometer. In 1888, Burroughs
obtains Patent for Calculating Machine. Herman Hollerith lodges patent for Punch Card
technology and Nintendo is founded.

1900- 2017 AD

The first Electronic computer was generated by Konrad Zuse of Germany in between time period
of 1935 to 1941. The Z3 was the first digital analog computer. Its original was destroyed during
the Second World War but some part can be found in the Munich museum of Dutch. In 1943, the
work for the making of Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was begun by
the researchers of the American University of Pennsylvania. John Mauchly and J Presper Eckert
established the ENIAC I in 1946. Selective sequence Calculator was made by IBM (International
Business Machine) in 1948. In the same year the Universe’s first stored programme computer
ran a programme by the Manchester Baby. EDSAC was developed in 1949 and goes online for
the use. In 1954, Z4 sold its first computer and Elliot computer was also developed in the same
year. Bill gates the founder of Microsoft was born in 1955 that just changed the computer world
and make it as today we are using. In 1970s the personal computer was developed for the use in
government offices and in the Universities. In 1979 Apple was launched. In 1983 Microsoft
windows was launched by Microsoft after that various software and graphics like Intel, NVidia
etc was included in the Computer. The drastic change was visible when Google indexed the 8
billion online web pages at single place in 2005. Microsoft Office was launched in 2007, and in
the same way various social networking platform like Facebook and Whatsapp was launched by
the effort of Mark Zuckerberg since 2007.

Impact of computers on Human Society

Since the day of invention of computer, the ability of human performance has been growing
exponentially. Computer has impacted human beings positively and negatively in both ways.

Positive:

Globalization: The computer has connected whole world into a single piece irrespective of
language, country, and religion etc. barrier. The whole world is using computer for achieving
their political, economic and social objectives. People use computers for trading, marketing,
communicating and various such activities. Science and Technology: The computer has played
an important role in advancement of Science and Technology. Education: A computer has
revolutionized the pattern of education by providing the online platform for the education at all
different level. Social Justice: A computer has shown positive side when it comes to the
violation of rights of the human beings. People speak for their right through social media.
Awareness: The computer has become platform for the correct information circulation in the
society. Communication: computer has made communication easy from one point to another on
this earth. The social networking sites have helped the people to maintain their relationship
balanced. Entertainment: The YouTube channel has shown great importance in the life of
human beings by providing best platform for the entertainment. Disaster Prediction: Internet
helps society to track various naturally occurring disasters like hurricane, storms and accidents.
Social: Computer never discriminate human because of their religion, caste, gender etc. and
gives output to all.

Negative:

The computer has shown the negative impact also on human beings by following way

Cybercrime: The increasing misuse of information has shown bad effect in this human society.
Cybercrime like fake email, online sex abuse through internet, hate speech, terrorism etc. is
increasing day by day which is very dangerous for the society. Pornography: The porn websites
availability has indirectly increased the crime in society which should be controlled by the
government. Health: Online gaming has affected the health of human beings mostly the
children. The trend for outdoor gaming has reduced drastically which has resulted into the lack
of physical exercise of human beings.

Computers and futures of human society

Many people have grown without computers and mobiles but are using computer and mobile
very easily. So the point is that is this the end of the computer to be developed? “No”. The new
incoming generation will have Robotics and Artificial Intelligence; workers will be replaced by
the computer robot and so many. Computer and software will be thinking more intelligently and
differently by using Artificial intelligence. The artificial intelligence computer will be working
as a doctor for various medical operations for the treatment of various diseases. The smarter will
be the education system as compare to the today. There will be the more entrepreneurs in the
society as it is today. Some of the world’s largest companies like Baidu, Google, Alibaba,
Facebook, Tencent, Amazon, and Microsoft are cornering the market for AI researchers, they
will play an important role in future of the human society. There will be competition among
human and computer robots in various fields as who are more intelligent. The world will narrate
the knowledge and thinking of the person who is impaired in different way like visual impaired
people, hearing impaired people etc. Next is Internet of Things (IOT), a concept of
computation which explains the idea of everyday physical objects connected to the internet and
will help them to be able to identify in other devices.

Overall, the human is somewhere becoming dependent on computer for the various activities and
can be imagined life without computer; it will be like cow without tail. The major challenge in
this computer world is that computer has to be regulated by concerned government and have
clear theories of harms and trade-offs.
References-

1. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/cgi/computing-timeline.pl?year=0001
2. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/28247/internet-of-things-iot
3. https://study.com/academy/lesson/history-of-computers-timeline-
evolution.html#partialRegFormModal