evolution of computers

The second half of this book is mostly about the evolution of computers and the people who helped design them.  At first, computers were very primitive and very large.  They were mostly used by the government or large firms for variuos reasons.  They were very expensive for the time and were very slow.  After twenty or so years the computer phenonemon took off.  People became much more interested into computers, companies started investing largely into computers and they began hiring young kids to do some of their work, regarding computers.  One of these people was Bill Gates.  Unfortunatley, another reason for the huge interest for development of computers was the Cold War.  The Soviet engineers embarrassed the American engineers by launching the first artificial satellite.  This prompted large amounts of money into science and research for computers and among other things.  The reason for this was that we wanted to become a superpower again and compete with the Soviets when it came to science, engineering and electronics.  The rest of the second half of the book has to do with networking and starting to become a virtual community of people and ways of getting in touch with people via the Internet.  The main idea of this book is show us the development of computers throughout the history of our society and the reasons for this.  The Cold War, general interest in computers and technology, the understanding of the effect of computers in a society.  I think that the development of computers is a very good for the world.  It makes alot of work much easier and quicker and it really changed the way we run live our lives.  Although, with the good comes the bad.  There are some downsides to computers.  It keeps children away from doing other acitvities outisde which can play a role in the a childs mood and personality.  Many people are happy with the way things are going wtih computers and the only change I see in the future is that computers become smaller, faster, more reliable and advanced.

blog 1

In the reading, I read very interesting and important material that has to do with various technogical and innovative devices.  These devices range from being very old to somewhat current.  They also range from being primitive and remedial to very advanced.  Many people from a variety a cultures used certain devices and instruments to communicate to the gods, navigate on land on water, tell time, figure out equations and son on.   The first device that I read is the astrolabe, which was at first thought to be used for navigation but, it actually was used for calculating lunar, solar and stellar calendars.  This was a big find becuase it completely changed the time the scholars thought that these devices could be made, people were much more intellignet than they had previously thought.  Another imporant development was called tide predictors, which simply determined the tides for fisherman.  One of the biggest devices that was ever created was the computer.  It helped people solve long and rigourous calculations instantly.  Since that was slow and not as efficient scholars came up with the calculator, which was created by blaise pascal.  The first man to create the modern computer was Thomas Atanasoff.  Ironically, World War 11 was a time in which science and technology soared to new peaks and things really changed.  For, example, the atom bomb, enigma machines, jet engine technogoy, outer space technology and so on.  Another time in the history of the world that sparked new technology was the cold war.  Both superpowers took on challenges to be the most powerful country on earth.  In this time, many more advances had come about and more people had access to them.  Unfortunatly, the reasons for these advances were to kill their fellow man before they could kill them.  I learned alot in these readings, the reasons for the advancements of technology are many, the biggest reason that I could figure out, was that peope would not die and become extinct, for self-preservation.  The main idea of this article is to tell us hoe important technology is and how far our society has become in a technological advancements.  i think that these advances were created for the good of society, but also to better and more advanced than our enemies.  These reasons are various.  The things that scare me range from what our country will be like in one-hundred years.  Will there be flying cars, immortality people being telepathic and so on.  I also think that the technology the goverment has, far exceeds what we have at our fingertips, which is scary.  How much farther and advaced can we become and at what cost?

daily life

As I went through my week I noticed that I use the internet, computer, facebook, e-mail and various internet websites much more than I thought I do,  This is due to the fact that I have been writing down everything that I do and slowly but surely the time added up.  I use facebook about an hour a week, I use my e-mail about another hour a week, I go on and use the computer about five hours a week, such as limewire and just searching random material.  I wouldnt say that I use alot of technogy but I definitely use more than I thought that I did.  I also use this technology a lot more than my parents do, but i would say that my friends use a lot more than I would use.  I also would like to add that I use technology much more than my parents ever did while they were growing up and much more than people did when they were my age ten years ago. This technology is very useful and we have made great strides in the past ten years with technology and so on.  But, with the good comes the bad.  Many people have lost their social skills and graces.  Young people are losing their skills on how to write and form a sentence.  The advanced technology also has lead young people to become overwight, has lead to mental disorders such as depression and other ailments in human society.  i cant tell whether it is better to have or to not have technology.