1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:19,800 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 4 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 1: are you? So? Here in the United States, we are 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: observing Memorial Day today, and on this day, the United 6 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:32,520 Speaker 1: States honors the memory of US military personnel who died 7 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: while serving. The subject of our episode today was in 8 00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:40,640 Speaker 1: the United States Military. She even rose to the rank 9 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: of Rear admiral in the United States Navy. However, she 10 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 1: did not die while in service. So I want to 11 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: make clear that this episode does not dismiss the countless 12 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 1: people who have given their lives in service to the 13 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:57,280 Speaker 1: United States Military, but rather to remember someone who made 14 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:04,319 Speaker 1: enormous contributions to technology, particularly while a member of the 15 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: US military. And we also associate her with a story 16 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:11,320 Speaker 1: that usually gets told incorrectly. In fact, I've been guilty 17 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:15,160 Speaker 1: of telling it incorrectly myself in the past. The person 18 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:19,160 Speaker 1: I'm talking about is, of course, Grace Hopper, who sometimes 19 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: gets the affectionate nickname Grandma Cooebol. Note I said cobol Cobol, 20 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:31,759 Speaker 1: not cobold, as in the Nasty Little critters in Dungeons 21 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:36,400 Speaker 1: and Dragons. Grace Hopper was born in nineteen oh six 22 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:40,680 Speaker 1: in New York City to a well off family. Her father, 23 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: a Yale graduate, owned an insurance company, and she grew 24 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: up not wanting for anything really. She attended private schools 25 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: and she matriculated at Vassar. She focused her studies on science, 26 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:00,640 Speaker 1: specifically in physics and in mathematics. She graduated Vassar in 27 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,360 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight, and then she followed in her father's footsteps. 28 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 1: She enrolled in Yale for graduate studies. In nineteen thirty, 29 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: she earned her master's degree in mathematics. She continued her 30 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,760 Speaker 1: graduate studies and pursued a PhD. Around the same time, 31 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 1: she also accepted a job to teach mathematics at her 32 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: alma mater, Vasser. Her mentor during this time was a 33 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,280 Speaker 1: fella named Howard Ingstrom. He was just four years older 34 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: than Hopper herself. So just a quick word about Ingstrom. 35 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:35,959 Speaker 1: The story is not really about him, but we need 36 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: to at least get an idea of who he was, 37 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,160 Speaker 1: and it is a bit important. While he was a mathematician, 38 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: his actual degrees were in chemical engineering, and then he 39 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:48,920 Speaker 1: would go on to be one of the co creators 40 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:54,079 Speaker 1: of the UNIVAC computer. Now, keep in mind at the 41 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: time we're at right now, with Grace Hopper's timeline, we're 42 00:02:56,600 --> 00:02:59,959 Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties. The concept of an electro mcanennic 43 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:05,519 Speaker 1: computer is really just starting to become coherent. Around this time. 44 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: There were people working on it, but these were very 45 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,639 Speaker 1: very early days with the idea of an electro mechanical computer. Now, 46 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: there had been earlier examples of purely mechanical computational machines 47 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: like Babbage's difference engine, Babbage's analytical engine. Those were at 48 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: least concepts that were computational engines that used mechanical components 49 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: to calculate things. Considering where Happer's career would take her, 50 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: having a mentor who was an early contributor to computer 51 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:42,000 Speaker 1: science and design is meaningful and they would have other 52 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 1: encounters in the future. But back to Hopper herself. She 53 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:49,400 Speaker 1: had the opportunity to study with the German American mathematician 54 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 1: Richard Courrant, whose work in the field of applied mathematics 55 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:57,120 Speaker 1: was renowned, and she earned her PhD from Yale in 56 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:00,160 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty four, and she earned it in mathematics and 57 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: mathematical physics. So then we skip ahead a few years. 58 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: On December seventh, nineteen forty one, Japanese forces bombed the 59 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: US base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The United States, 60 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: which had resisted entering into the conflict we would call 61 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:21,800 Speaker 1: World War two, found itself drawn into the conflict, and 62 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: Hopper wanted to be part of the war effort, and 63 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:29,599 Speaker 1: she applied to become enlisted in the Navy. However, the 64 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: Navy rejected her, partly because Grace Hopper was of a 65 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: petite build, diminutive in size some would describe her, and 66 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:43,080 Speaker 1: also because at age thirty four at this time, the 67 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: Navy considered her to be too old to join the effort. Nevertheless, 68 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 1: she persisted, and Grace Hopper would end up joining the 69 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: US Naval Women's Reserve in nineteen forty three. So while 70 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:00,919 Speaker 1: she wasn't an active member of the Navy, she was 71 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: an active member of the Navy Reserves, and she received 72 00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: an assignment to work on the Bureau of Ship's computation 73 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:12,040 Speaker 1: project at Harvard University. There, she worked with a Harvard 74 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:16,640 Speaker 1: graduate named Howard Aiken. When Aiken was a graduate student 75 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:21,080 Speaker 1: at Harvard, he lamented that his doctoral thesis relied upon 76 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:27,400 Speaker 1: complex calculations that were tedious to perform by hand, and so, 77 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:30,960 Speaker 1: like many innovators before him, he decided the best option 78 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:34,240 Speaker 1: was to find people he could work with to invent 79 00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:37,640 Speaker 1: a device that could do those kinds of calculations automatically. 80 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,560 Speaker 1: So he was able to work with a relatively young 81 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 1: company called International Business Machines better known today as just IBM, 82 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:50,640 Speaker 1: and together they would be able to bring his wish 83 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: into reality. So Iiken would kind of act as the 84 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 1: director or at least the guide officer, like he's guided 85 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: the development of this machine to perform these calculations automatically. 86 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: The result was a device called the Automatic Sequence Controlled 87 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:15,479 Speaker 1: Calculator ASCC, but later and better known as just the 88 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:21,040 Speaker 1: Harvard Mark one. So Hopper joined the Bureau of Ships 89 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: right around the time that the Mark one had been 90 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:29,280 Speaker 1: shipped to Harvard from IBM. So the Mark one didn't 91 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:34,320 Speaker 1: look anything like a modern computer does. It was an 92 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:39,480 Speaker 1: electro mechanical device. It had moving parts like there were 93 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:44,160 Speaker 1: shafts that would turn and gears that would turn, and 94 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:47,160 Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff like it was. It was a 95 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: real machine, and it also had electrical parts right there 96 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:55,600 Speaker 1: were electrical switches, there were various relays, and there were 97 00:06:55,800 --> 00:07:01,320 Speaker 1: miles and miles of cables, something like hundred miles it was. 98 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:04,080 Speaker 1: You know, I've seen different estimates, but yes, hundreds of 99 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 1: miles of cables connecting all these different components. The whole 100 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:13,280 Speaker 1: thing collectively weighed more than four tons. If you were 101 00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: to look at the deal and get a tape measure out, 102 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: it was about fifty one feet long. It was eight 103 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:24,160 Speaker 1: feet tall and then two feet deep, right, so like 104 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 1: you might want to think, it was like fifty one 105 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:30,240 Speaker 1: feet wide, eight feet tall, and then two feet deep 106 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:34,200 Speaker 1: something like that. That's a definitely not a desktop computer 107 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:39,360 Speaker 1: unless you have a truly ginormous desk. This computer could 108 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:43,040 Speaker 1: store a few dozen numbers, and you could actually then 109 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 1: use those numbers for multiple calculations. So that was useful, right, right, 110 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: You didn't have to insert the same number every time 111 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:51,640 Speaker 1: you wanted to do a different calculation. You could actually 112 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:55,240 Speaker 1: store a number in this device. In fact, more than 113 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: seventy numbers at a time, and I think it was 114 00:07:57,280 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 1: something like it was more than twenty decimal points or 115 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:04,080 Speaker 1: decimal digits that you could store in this per number. 116 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: The length of time it would take to generate an 117 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:10,640 Speaker 1: answer would depend upon the nature of the calculation, so 118 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:15,080 Speaker 1: simple operations like addition or subtraction would take around a 119 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:19,680 Speaker 1: second for this machine to perform. More complex mathematical functions 120 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,320 Speaker 1: could require a minute or more. But it was all automatic. 121 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 1: At least it was once you input all the data, 122 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 1: which you would do by using switches. Lots and lots 123 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:35,440 Speaker 1: of switches. The Mark one had more than a thousand 124 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:39,560 Speaker 1: switches in various switch banks, so you had to use 125 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: all these in order to input the data you wanted 126 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: to then operate upon. Now to tell the computer what 127 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: you wanted done to the input, remember inputs just one thing. 128 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:55,480 Speaker 1: You also have to instruct the computer what operation to perform. Well. 129 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:58,040 Speaker 1: To do that, you would use a program, and in 130 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: those days, a program consisted of you know, punch cards 131 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 1: in some cases, but in the case of the Mark one, 132 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:11,079 Speaker 1: it was essentially paper tape that had holes punched into it, 133 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:14,040 Speaker 1: and you would feed the tape through the computer and 134 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: those holes would allow for specific connections within the computer, 135 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,520 Speaker 1: and in turn that served as instructions for the computer. 136 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:26,240 Speaker 1: It would perform a specific operation depending upon which contacts 137 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:31,080 Speaker 1: allowed to go through. So programming a computer meant physically 138 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:35,280 Speaker 1: punching holes in cards or in tape, and Grace Hopper 139 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,200 Speaker 1: would be one of the first three people to do this. 140 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: So she was one of the first three computer programmers 141 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:47,440 Speaker 1: for the Harvard Mark one computer. Now she wasn't just 142 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:51,760 Speaker 1: a programmer, She never was just a programmer. She was 143 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:54,880 Speaker 1: also an instructor. Remember, she had come from a background 144 00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:58,599 Speaker 1: of teaching. She taught at Vassar before she joined the 145 00:09:58,679 --> 00:10:02,480 Speaker 1: Navy Reserves. So it became her job to write a 146 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,000 Speaker 1: user manual for the Mark one. The story goes that 147 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:08,520 Speaker 1: I Can initially didn't want to give Hopper very much 148 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:13,280 Speaker 1: responsibility because he mistakenly believed that due to the fact 149 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,400 Speaker 1: she was a woman, she would be limited in that capacity. 150 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:19,960 Speaker 1: And then Hopper proved him wrong, and so then he said, 151 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 1: all right, you know what, you know what you're doing, 152 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:25,880 Speaker 1: write the instruction manual for the Mark one. Now, as 153 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:29,960 Speaker 1: you might imagine, the complexity of the Mark one required 154 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 1: a pretty long instruction manual. From what I understand, the 155 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:40,959 Speaker 1: manual had more than five hundred and fifty pages of instructions. Yikes. Now, 156 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:45,120 Speaker 1: keep in mind again it's an electro mechanical system, really complicated. 157 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:48,400 Speaker 1: Literally lots of moving parts, which means there's lots of 158 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,800 Speaker 1: potential points of failure. So it makes sense that any 159 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:54,800 Speaker 1: comprehensive manual would need to be long. But can you 160 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 1: imagine being put in charge of writing a comprehensive instruction 161 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:03,839 Speaker 1: manual for such a complicated machine. She did it, and 162 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:06,959 Speaker 1: she would work on various projects that would contribute either 163 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:10,560 Speaker 1: directly or indirectly to the war effort. So the lab 164 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:16,040 Speaker 1: she worked in, the calculations they were performing using this computer, 165 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:20,840 Speaker 1: they were for all sorts of things, including things like numbers, 166 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:25,079 Speaker 1: tables for stuff like rocket trajectories or specific types of artillery, 167 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:29,240 Speaker 1: so that soldiers in the field would have a reference 168 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:31,800 Speaker 1: and they would know what settings to use when they 169 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:35,440 Speaker 1: were targeting enemies. Right like you know where the enemy is, 170 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:37,679 Speaker 1: or you're told where the enemy is in relation to 171 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:40,439 Speaker 1: where you are, you have to actually make the calculations 172 00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:44,480 Speaker 1: of how to position, say a piece of artillery, how 173 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 1: to position the gun barrel, so that when you fire, 174 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:50,920 Speaker 1: you're actually going to hit that target and not something else, 175 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:53,520 Speaker 1: Right Like, you don't want to end up hitting a 176 00:11:53,559 --> 00:12:00,400 Speaker 1: civilian building. You're aiming at a military unit or or 177 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:04,320 Speaker 1: something like that. You need these tables so that you understand, 178 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: based upon the equipment you're using and the firepower behind it, 179 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:12,200 Speaker 1: that you are actually going to hit the thing you're 180 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:17,480 Speaker 1: aiming at. That's the kind of calculations that Hopper's team 181 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:21,960 Speaker 1: was working on, and some of the work that was 182 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,760 Speaker 1: done with the Harvard Mark one would also end up 183 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:28,480 Speaker 1: being used by the Manhattan Project that was the top 184 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:32,160 Speaker 1: secret mission to develop the atomic bomb. They also would 185 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:38,080 Speaker 1: depend upon calculations made by the Mark one. Now, at 186 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:41,920 Speaker 1: the conclusion of World War Two, Hopper would choose to 187 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:45,640 Speaker 1: stay with Harvard. She was given the opportunity to go 188 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:48,760 Speaker 1: back to Vassar, but she decided she would stick with 189 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:52,760 Speaker 1: Harvard and work on computer systems. We're going to take 190 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:54,640 Speaker 1: a quick break, but when we come back, we'll talk 191 00:12:54,720 --> 00:13:08,959 Speaker 1: more about the contributions Grace Hopper made to computing. Okay, 192 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:12,240 Speaker 1: we're back. So, as I mentioned before the break, after 193 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:16,000 Speaker 1: World War Two, Grace Hopper decided that she was going 194 00:13:16,040 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: to stay at Harvard, at least briefly. She would stay 195 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:25,160 Speaker 1: there so she was an intrinsic part of the team 196 00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:28,880 Speaker 1: that developed the Mark two, the successor of the Mark one, 197 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:34,000 Speaker 1: so a more complicated and sophisticated computer. She also worked 198 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,560 Speaker 1: on the design of the Mark III, which obviously followed 199 00:13:37,559 --> 00:13:41,600 Speaker 1: the Mark two, and at this point Harvard was still 200 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:44,880 Speaker 1: receiving support from the US Navy, which had a vested 201 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:51,880 Speaker 1: interest in having access to sophisticated computational machines. Around this time, 202 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,600 Speaker 1: we get to a story that has been mangled quite 203 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:58,559 Speaker 1: a bit in the past. In fact, even Yale's own 204 00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:02,320 Speaker 1: page about Grace appears to have a mistake in it, 205 00:14:02,679 --> 00:14:06,719 Speaker 1: because the Yale page says that this incident that we're 206 00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:09,880 Speaker 1: about to talk about happened in nineteen forty five, but 207 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:14,400 Speaker 1: according to other sources that talk about the actual log 208 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:20,440 Speaker 1: book that recounts this event, it happened on a specific 209 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 1: day two years later, on September ninth, nineteen forty seven. 210 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:27,800 Speaker 1: So again, this is a story that has been told 211 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 1: and retold many times, and a lot of those retellings 212 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:37,720 Speaker 1: are inaccurate, probably not intentionally inaccurate, but it just has happened, 213 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:41,280 Speaker 1: And like I said, in the past, I've repeated some 214 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 1: of those inaccuracy. So I'm going to try to be 215 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:49,280 Speaker 1: as careful as I can to recount what actually happened. 216 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:52,280 Speaker 1: Keeping in mind that this story has been told so 217 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:55,640 Speaker 1: many times that it's very possible that there is no 218 00:14:56,920 --> 00:15:00,600 Speaker 1: one hundred percent accurate version of the story. But here's 219 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: how it goes. So the Mark two team at Harvard 220 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:09,760 Speaker 1: were running into problems. The Mark two computer was producing 221 00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:12,760 Speaker 1: error after error, and it was doing so consistently. So 222 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:17,400 Speaker 1: there was something wrong and it didn't matter how many 223 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,040 Speaker 1: times they ran the calculation through. They were getting the 224 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:23,960 Speaker 1: same errors at the other side, which meant something somewhere 225 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:26,520 Speaker 1: in the computer system was hanky. I mean, maybe a 226 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:30,920 Speaker 1: connection was loose, maybe a wire had broken. Like there 227 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:33,360 Speaker 1: was no way to know unless you cracked the sucker 228 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 1: open and really took a look. So that's what Hopper's 229 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:40,800 Speaker 1: team did. They began to look through the Mark two 230 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:43,520 Speaker 1: computer to see what was going on, where was this 231 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:48,640 Speaker 1: problem actually occurring. Then they found it. A moth had 232 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:52,040 Speaker 1: been trapped inside the Mark two computer and it got 233 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:56,920 Speaker 1: zapped in a relay and thus it was blocking a signal. Right, 234 00:15:57,040 --> 00:16:00,120 Speaker 1: the relay could not relay signals because there was a 235 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:03,640 Speaker 1: a dead moth in the way. So they removed the 236 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:08,520 Speaker 1: x insect and they actually taped it into the log 237 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:10,760 Speaker 1: book they were keeping where they were. You know, they 238 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: would write down whenever they had errors you know, they 239 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:17,360 Speaker 1: would log them so that they could work the errors out. 240 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: So they taped the dead moth into the logbook, and 241 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:26,360 Speaker 1: they included the amusing note of quote first actual case 242 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:33,320 Speaker 1: of bug being found end quote. So the shorthand for 243 00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:37,840 Speaker 1: this story is that Grace Hopper invented the term bug 244 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:41,240 Speaker 1: when it comes to a problem that's in a computer 245 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:44,520 Speaker 1: program or even in a computer system. But that's not 246 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: entirely accurate. So the term bug meaning something is going 247 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:53,880 Speaker 1: wrong inside a mechanical or electrical system, something is creating errors. 248 00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:57,840 Speaker 1: That pre dates the nineteen forty seven incident. That was 249 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:02,720 Speaker 1: a term that was already in use in various engineering circles. 250 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 1: And that makes sense, like it has to have already 251 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:10,360 Speaker 1: existed or else that log entry doesn't make sense. Right, 252 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:14,240 Speaker 1: The log entry was first actual case of a bug 253 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:18,720 Speaker 1: being found, So that implies that the term bug was 254 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:22,119 Speaker 1: already being used to describe errors. It's just that in 255 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:27,080 Speaker 1: this particular case the bug was a literal bug. So 256 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:30,920 Speaker 1: a lot of historical accounts now say Grace Hopper was 257 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 1: the first to apply the term bug to a problem 258 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: within a computer system, not just an electrical system or 259 00:17:39,359 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: mechanical system, but a computer system itself, and effectively she 260 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:48,359 Speaker 1: coined the phrase computer bug. That's possibly true. It's at 261 00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:51,480 Speaker 1: least more accurate than just saying she coined the phrase bug, 262 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:55,640 Speaker 1: because that's not true. Also, we should mention that it's 263 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,560 Speaker 1: really her team, Like to this day, there's a little 264 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:03,520 Speaker 1: bit of co of who first made the joke about 265 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:07,000 Speaker 1: it being a bug. She also gets the credit for 266 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:11,199 Speaker 1: the term debugging, and initially that makes sense because her 267 00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:15,880 Speaker 1: team literally had to debug a computer system by removing 268 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:20,240 Speaker 1: the moth from the relay. However, the term debugging was 269 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:23,400 Speaker 1: already being used in other circles as well. In fact, 270 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,760 Speaker 1: it appears in a nineteen forty four letter that Jay 271 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:31,199 Speaker 1: Robert Oppenheimer wrote to Ernest Lawrence, for example, that happened 272 00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:34,120 Speaker 1: three years before the Great Moth incident in the mark 273 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:38,520 Speaker 1: to computer, So debugging was already a thing too. You 274 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:40,959 Speaker 1: could argue maybe she was the first to use debugging 275 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:44,600 Speaker 1: in relation to a computer system. And maybe she was, 276 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,640 Speaker 1: or at least her team was. Now, as far as 277 00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:51,919 Speaker 1: I can tell, Grace Hopper never claimed that she or 278 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:57,000 Speaker 1: her team coined the term's computer bug or debugging, that 279 00:18:57,119 --> 00:19:01,320 Speaker 1: this was something of a narrative that develop around her 280 00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:04,240 Speaker 1: but she was not responsible for it. She never made 281 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:07,719 Speaker 1: those claims. Now, I think it might be because the 282 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:11,159 Speaker 1: actual story of a real bug causing problems in a 283 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,919 Speaker 1: computer is so amusing that folks want it to be 284 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:19,120 Speaker 1: the origin story for the term itself, right, because it's 285 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,040 Speaker 1: such a good story. Wouldn't that be awesome if that's 286 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:27,400 Speaker 1: why we say computer bug? And it's still a great story, right, 287 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:31,680 Speaker 1: it's fantastic, and it really did happen to Grace Hopper's team, 288 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,720 Speaker 1: So not taking anything away from that, it's just that 289 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:39,159 Speaker 1: it's not where we get those phrases. It's just an 290 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:44,120 Speaker 1: amusing example of it being literal in this sense. Now, 291 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: we're not done with Grace Hopper, not by a long shot, 292 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:51,159 Speaker 1: because her contributions went far beyond a close encounter of 293 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:55,159 Speaker 1: the moth kind. That's just the amusing story folks like 294 00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 1: to tell that. It relates to Grace Hopper's contributions in 295 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:05,440 Speaker 1: computer science. So Hopper faced professional challenges. Despite her impressive 296 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:08,600 Speaker 1: work to both the war effort during World War Two 297 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:13,040 Speaker 1: and to computer programming in general, the Navy denied her 298 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:18,080 Speaker 1: a regular commission, so she decided to leave active service. 299 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:23,160 Speaker 1: She would remain a reservist until nineteen sixty six. More 300 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:25,199 Speaker 1: on that when we get there, But she was no 301 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:28,800 Speaker 1: longer an active service member of the US Navy at 302 00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:32,520 Speaker 1: this point. Not long after she stepped down from active 303 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:35,960 Speaker 1: service with the Navy, she actually chose to leave Harvard 304 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:40,560 Speaker 1: as well because she had been denied tenure, and it 305 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:43,800 Speaker 1: also became obvious to her that she was not going 306 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:47,200 Speaker 1: to get promoted there despite all the work she was doing. 307 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,159 Speaker 1: That she was just hitting a glass ceiling super hard 308 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,880 Speaker 1: and there was no real chance of her getting beyond it. 309 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:59,400 Speaker 1: So rather than bang her head and or accept her 310 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:03,879 Speaker 1: fate and not get any further in her career, she 311 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,679 Speaker 1: decided in nineteen forty nine, she left Harvard University and 312 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:12,040 Speaker 1: she went to join a computer company, a fledgling computer 313 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:18,480 Speaker 1: company called the Eckert Mauchlee Computer Corporation or EMCC. The 314 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:25,919 Speaker 1: following year, a typewriter company called Remington Rand would acquire EMCC. 315 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:28,119 Speaker 1: And this is where we're going to get into a 316 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: very complicated history of a very important computer system. All right. 317 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:38,920 Speaker 1: So EMCC, or Eckert Mauchley Computer Corporation, had taken its 318 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:44,320 Speaker 1: name from its two founders, Jay Presper Eckert and John Mouchley. Now, 319 00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:48,720 Speaker 1: these two had built another early computer. This one was 320 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:54,640 Speaker 1: called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer or ENIAC, at 321 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:58,879 Speaker 1: the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC was also an important computer, 322 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,680 Speaker 1: or at least it was to be a important computer 323 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,680 Speaker 1: during World War Two. The actual development and construction of 324 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:09,479 Speaker 1: ENIAC took quite a long time, but ENIAC is one 325 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:14,200 Speaker 1: of those famous early electrical computers or electronic computers, i 326 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:18,840 Speaker 1: should say. Now. Following that achievement, the two men found 327 00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:24,040 Speaker 1: themselves at a fundamental disagreement with the University of Pennsylvania 328 00:22:24,119 --> 00:22:27,679 Speaker 1: over the matter of patent rights, and this led the 329 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,680 Speaker 1: pair to leave the University of Pennsylvania and then go 330 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:35,960 Speaker 1: and found their own company. Thus, EMCC and EMCC designed 331 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:41,119 Speaker 1: a new computer called the Binary Automatic Computer or BINAK, 332 00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:45,280 Speaker 1: which is essentially just a footnote in history. There's very 333 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:48,560 Speaker 1: little about BINAK out there. It's possible that the machine 334 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:53,200 Speaker 1: was literally never used for anything. However, it did arguably 335 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,560 Speaker 1: leave the Bureau of the Census to then seek out 336 00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:00,840 Speaker 1: EMCC to create a new computer design, which the company 337 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:05,280 Speaker 1: would refer to as UNIVAC. And Grace Hopper would join 338 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:09,800 Speaker 1: EMCC around this time and would be important in the 339 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:15,399 Speaker 1: work and development of UNIVAC, specifically in programming for the UNIVAC. 340 00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:19,440 Speaker 1: But in the fall of nineteen forty nine, the primary 341 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:24,240 Speaker 1: financial backer for EMCC died in a plane crash. So 342 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:32,119 Speaker 1: once their financier essentially had died, EMCC was kind of 343 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:36,879 Speaker 1: in financial trouble. They weren't sure whether they could last 344 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:41,040 Speaker 1: long enough to build out the UNIVAC. That's when Remington 345 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:44,960 Speaker 1: Rand came along and acquired EMCC. Rimmington Rand was, really, 346 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:49,640 Speaker 1: like I said, a typewriter company. They made office typewriters, 347 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:52,639 Speaker 1: but they saw the opportunity to get into the computer 348 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:58,400 Speaker 1: world by purchasing EMCC. However, there's always a bigger fish, 349 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: so things are about to get way more complicated. I'll 350 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 1: explain what I mean by that after we come back 351 00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 1: from this quick break. All right, we're up to nineteen 352 00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:22,479 Speaker 1: fifty one. Grace Hopper has been part of EMCC and 353 00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:26,840 Speaker 1: then Remington Rand, which purchased EMCC for a few years, 354 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,320 Speaker 1: and that's when the company completed work on the first 355 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:34,880 Speaker 1: UNIVAC computer. It would eventually be known as the UNIVAC one, 356 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,639 Speaker 1: but at the time they just called it the Univac. 357 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:41,200 Speaker 1: Kind of like how in World War One. People referred 358 00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,280 Speaker 1: to it as the Great War because if they had 359 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:45,639 Speaker 1: started calling it World War One while they were fighting it, 360 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:50,040 Speaker 1: that would have been, you know, very pessimistic. Calling Univac 361 00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,280 Speaker 1: the UNIVAC one would have been very optimistic. So they 362 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,119 Speaker 1: built the UNIVAC, and unlike other computers, this was not 363 00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: a computer that was just meant to be a one 364 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:03,280 Speaker 1: and done like. They made multiple UNIVAC one computer systems. 365 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,320 Speaker 1: The first one went to the United States Census Bureau 366 00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:09,160 Speaker 1: because that's kind of where all this work got started, 367 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:14,959 Speaker 1: but the company made other ones for other clients, including CBS. Famously, 368 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:19,440 Speaker 1: CBS would use the UNIVAC one to predict the outcome 369 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,479 Speaker 1: of the nineteen fifty two presidential election, but when they 370 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,680 Speaker 1: got the results, they didn't trust it because the Univac 371 00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:31,080 Speaker 1: had said that Eisenhower was going to win handily, that 372 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:34,120 Speaker 1: it was going to be a landslide victory for Eisenhower, 373 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,760 Speaker 1: but the conventional wisdom at the time was that this 374 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,800 Speaker 1: was going to be a much closer presidential race. However, 375 00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:46,600 Speaker 1: it would ultimately turn out that the UNIVAC prediction was right, like, 376 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:50,760 Speaker 1: not exactly right. They didn't get to the very you know, 377 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,879 Speaker 1: the very voter or anything like that. But it was 378 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,280 Speaker 1: way more correct than the guests that it was going 379 00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:59,399 Speaker 1: to be a tight race. And that ended up really 380 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:04,280 Speaker 1: elevating univacs prestige because once CBS said, Okay, well it 381 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:08,080 Speaker 1: turns out our computer predicted a landslide. We just didn't 382 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,040 Speaker 1: believe it. But it turns out the computer was right. 383 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: That's amazing press for your computer system. Right. So, Rimington 384 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 1: Rand slash EMCC would continue to develop the UNIVAC platform, 385 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:24,640 Speaker 1: and then Rimington Rand made another acquisition. It acquired a 386 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:30,520 Speaker 1: competing computer company called Engineering Research Associates or ER. So 387 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,560 Speaker 1: Rand acquired ER in nineteen fifty two. Now, one of 388 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:41,680 Speaker 1: era's founders was Hopper's old mathematics mentor, Howard Ingstrom. Rand 389 00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:47,080 Speaker 1: effectively ran EMCC and ERA as separate entities. Right, so, 390 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:52,040 Speaker 1: while both companies were under the corporate umbrella of Remington Rand, 391 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 1: they still were kind of competing against each other. They 392 00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,639 Speaker 1: were making different computer designs. That, however, would change in 393 00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:04,159 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five. I told you this gets complicated. So 394 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:08,240 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five, Rand merged with another company called 395 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:12,920 Speaker 1: Sperry spe r r Y, and then the new company 396 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,480 Speaker 1: was known as Sperry Rand. Now, at this point EMCC 397 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,639 Speaker 1: and ERA divisions would be merged together to form a 398 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:25,960 Speaker 1: new division called Sperry UNIVAC. One of the folks at 399 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:29,119 Speaker 1: ERA really didn't like that because it meant that ERA 400 00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,040 Speaker 1: had to drop a lot of the work it had 401 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:36,520 Speaker 1: been pursuing. This guy was known as Seymour Cray. He 402 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:41,320 Speaker 1: left the Sperry Rand Company and decided to make his 403 00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:46,280 Speaker 1: own computer company. It's called Cray Computers. That's another story. 404 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:48,320 Speaker 1: It might mean something to you if you know the 405 00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:52,920 Speaker 1: names of old supercomputer systems. Yeah, we'll have to tell 406 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:55,919 Speaker 1: the story of Cray Computers in another episode. So anyway, 407 00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:00,919 Speaker 1: at this point, the head of the division that was 408 00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:05,600 Speaker 1: Sperry UNIVAC was a guy named Leslie Groves. Now, Groves 409 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,639 Speaker 1: had been an officer with the US Army Corps of Engineers. 410 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:11,840 Speaker 1: He was actually in charge of the construction of the 411 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:16,120 Speaker 1: Pentagon back in the nineteen forties. He also served as 412 00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: the military's director for the Manhattan Project, and he went 413 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,080 Speaker 1: on to oversee the early days of what would become 414 00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:25,880 Speaker 1: the United States nuclear weapons program. But he had also 415 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,800 Speaker 1: reached an impasse with the US government. He was told 416 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,560 Speaker 1: outright he was never going to get the appointment he wanted, 417 00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:34,400 Speaker 1: and in the late nineteen forties he decided to leave 418 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,560 Speaker 1: military service. He received the rank of lieutenant general just 419 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,800 Speaker 1: before he retired, and then he entered civilian life and 420 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,720 Speaker 1: he joined Sperry and became a vice president of that company. 421 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:49,400 Speaker 1: So I mentioned that again because this episode goes out 422 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:55,720 Speaker 1: a Memorial Day and Sperry Rand this computer company had 423 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:59,680 Speaker 1: a really healthy representation of former Armed Forces personnel working 424 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:03,400 Speaker 1: as engineers. There. In fact, this was not unusual across 425 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:07,840 Speaker 1: computer companies of the time that the engineers who were 426 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,280 Speaker 1: at the forefront of the United States development of computers 427 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:17,520 Speaker 1: were people who had previously worked in that respect for 428 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:22,120 Speaker 1: the Armed Forces. Now, as I said, Hopper was involved 429 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,080 Speaker 1: with the work on UNIVAC primarily from a programming side, 430 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:27,600 Speaker 1: and her team would create something that would push computer 431 00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:31,760 Speaker 1: science in general and computer programming in particular into a 432 00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:35,240 Speaker 1: new era and to make it way more accessible for 433 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:41,080 Speaker 1: new programmers. And this was the first compiler. All right. 434 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 1: So I've talked in the past about how machines do 435 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,840 Speaker 1: not understand languages the way we do. So when you 436 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:53,080 Speaker 1: get down to the basic operational level, machines don't understand 437 00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,320 Speaker 1: human language right, Like, you can have a conversation with 438 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:01,880 Speaker 1: chat GPT and the appearance is that the machine understands 439 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: what you're saying, But this is actually after several layers 440 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 1: of abstraction. When you strip it all away, machines understand 441 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:14,400 Speaker 1: machine code. Typically we're talking about binary code, so that 442 00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,440 Speaker 1: means at the basic level of computing, you're dealing with 443 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:21,760 Speaker 1: zeros and ones. Machines can process this information efficiently, but 444 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,560 Speaker 1: it's not easy for humans to work with that. Now, 445 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:33,120 Speaker 1: early programming languages were really mathematical codes, and we're very, 446 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:38,080 Speaker 1: very close to giving to machine code itself. Grace Hopper 447 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:40,720 Speaker 1: had this dream of making a system where humans could 448 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:45,320 Speaker 1: write instructions for computers in a more easily accessible language, 449 00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,240 Speaker 1: something that was closer to the language like English. Now 450 00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:53,920 Speaker 1: a lot of are contemporaries dismiss this as just wishful thinking, like, yes, 451 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,560 Speaker 1: it would be nice if you could program in a 452 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,400 Speaker 1: language closer to English, but it would also be nice 453 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,800 Speaker 1: if I had my own private plane and could fly 454 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:04,360 Speaker 1: anywhere I wanted to do, any time of day. It's 455 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:08,400 Speaker 1: just a pipe dream. How can you bridge the gap 456 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,440 Speaker 1: between what humans find easy to do when it comes 457 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:17,320 Speaker 1: to communication, and what machines are capable of, and Hopper's 458 00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:21,040 Speaker 1: team got to work on creating a solution. Now. That 459 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:26,800 Speaker 1: solution came in two important parts. One is programming language. Now, 460 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:31,800 Speaker 1: programming language creates a level of abstraction from machine code 461 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,760 Speaker 1: to make programming less of an arduous task, but not 462 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:39,240 Speaker 1: all programming languages are alike. A low level programming language 463 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,840 Speaker 1: is really just a few degrees separation from machine code itself. 464 00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:47,880 Speaker 1: It's still pretty challenging to learn. It is a slog 465 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:52,680 Speaker 1: to really get a firm grasp on how to program, 466 00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:55,560 Speaker 1: which in turn means you can be really limited in 467 00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:59,040 Speaker 1: what you can do right that you have the potential 468 00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:02,160 Speaker 1: to do much more interesting programming, but you have a 469 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:06,800 Speaker 1: limitation because the language itself is so difficult to work with. 470 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:11,200 Speaker 1: A high level programming language has more layers of abstraction, 471 00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,280 Speaker 1: so it makes it easier for humans to grasp and 472 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:18,040 Speaker 1: to work with, and you're also less likely to introduce 473 00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:23,640 Speaker 1: bugs like programming bugs. Obviously that still happens, but it's 474 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,120 Speaker 1: slightly easier to avoid. But to make a programming language useful, 475 00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:30,960 Speaker 1: you have to have a way to translate those instructions 476 00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:35,120 Speaker 1: from the more human friendly programming language to the useful 477 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:39,080 Speaker 1: machine code that the computer system actually relies upon. To 478 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: that end, Hopper's team built the first compiler, and the 479 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,680 Speaker 1: compiler does pretty much what I just described. It takes 480 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,239 Speaker 1: code that's written in a programming language and compiles that 481 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:54,640 Speaker 1: into machine readable instructions. The early programming languages, like I said, 482 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,920 Speaker 1: we're essentially mathematical code like Fourtran is an example very 483 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:02,880 Speaker 1: close to mathematical code. Hopper's team developed a programming language 484 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:06,040 Speaker 1: that began to approach something similar to English, and this 485 00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:08,920 Speaker 1: was a huge step. It was a non trivial development 486 00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,880 Speaker 1: in the world of computer science. Hopper's team named the 487 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:18,280 Speaker 1: language Flowmatic. Unlike predecessor's like Fortrand, Flowmatic's use of English 488 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,120 Speaker 1: commands remove some of the barriers to programming. It was 489 00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,320 Speaker 1: still a challenge to learn. It wasn't like the easiest 490 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:25,800 Speaker 1: thing in the world to work with, but the learning 491 00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:29,680 Speaker 1: curve became way way less harsh when you started to 492 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:36,920 Speaker 1: introduce this more English structure type of programming language. Flomatic 493 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,440 Speaker 1: would essentially become the inspiration for a future programming language 494 00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:46,240 Speaker 1: called Common Business Oriented Language or COBOL, which we mentioned 495 00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: at the top of the show. Or COBOL if you prefer. 496 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:53,719 Speaker 1: And Hopper really liked Cobol, and she promoted it and 497 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:58,200 Speaker 1: worked on compilers for the Cobol language, and that helped 498 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:02,000 Speaker 1: make Cobol a widely used language in academia, in the 499 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:06,160 Speaker 1: private sector, in the military, and her work really made 500 00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:09,800 Speaker 1: huge results. People would later attribute her promotion of Cobol 501 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:14,120 Speaker 1: as a major factor in the language's success, because by 502 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:16,959 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies it would become the most commonly used 503 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:22,760 Speaker 1: programming language out there, and people say Grace Hopper's contributions 504 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,000 Speaker 1: were a large part of that. Now, as I mentioned 505 00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:29,840 Speaker 1: earlier in this episode, Hopper was in the Navy reserves 506 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:33,960 Speaker 1: until nineteen sixty six, so she had left active service, 507 00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,640 Speaker 1: but she had remained in the reserves for two decades 508 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:41,040 Speaker 1: until she was required to retire due to age restrictions, 509 00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:44,480 Speaker 1: and she would reference her retirement from the Navy as 510 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:47,560 Speaker 1: the saddest day of her life. Her rank at the 511 00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:53,680 Speaker 1: time was commander. And then seven months later, the Navy 512 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:58,799 Speaker 1: came back to her and said, Grace, could you help 513 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,640 Speaker 1: us out again? And after retiring as a reservist, Grace 514 00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:06,320 Speaker 1: Hopper would rejoin the Navy as an active service member. 515 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:11,920 Speaker 1: Her responsibilities primarily included streamlining the Navy's approach to computers 516 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:15,400 Speaker 1: and to find a way to manage the multiple computer 517 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,040 Speaker 1: systems and computer languages the Navy was reliant upon, because 518 00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:24,160 Speaker 1: by this time, the Navy had invested in multiple computer systems, 519 00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,880 Speaker 1: working with lots of different people who took different approaches, 520 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:33,799 Speaker 1: and it just became complicated and difficult to coordinate projects 521 00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:37,920 Speaker 1: because you had different systems working with very different computer languages, 522 00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:42,040 Speaker 1: they were not inherently compatible. So Grace Hopper was there 523 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,680 Speaker 1: to try and make sense of it all and to 524 00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:48,880 Speaker 1: make it more efficient and streamlined. She would spend nearly 525 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:53,120 Speaker 1: two more decades as an active service member of the Navy, 526 00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:58,400 Speaker 1: and she got the nickname Amazing Grace. She also continued 527 00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:02,400 Speaker 1: to work for UNIVAC until nineteen seventy two. Throughout her career, 528 00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:06,640 Speaker 1: she earned countless distinctions, way too many for me to 529 00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:10,240 Speaker 1: list in this episode. At the age of seventy nine, 530 00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:16,839 Speaker 1: she finally retired from the Navy for realsi's no takebacks. 531 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:21,239 Speaker 1: By that point, she had attained the rank of Rear admiral, 532 00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:26,040 Speaker 1: and at that point she was also the oldest active 533 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:32,279 Speaker 1: service member in US military, which is pretty pretty phenomenal. 534 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:39,400 Speaker 1: As I said, she got numerous awards and distinctions, both 535 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:46,280 Speaker 1: while she was alive and posthumously. She has received awards 536 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:53,320 Speaker 1: from US presidents, from various universities, from various professional associations. 537 00:36:54,480 --> 00:37:01,200 Speaker 1: An incredibly important person in the world of computer science. 538 00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 1: She lived until the ripe old age of eighty five. 539 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:10,879 Speaker 1: She passed away on New Year's Day nineteen ninety two 540 00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:17,040 Speaker 1: and was buried an Arlington cemetery with full military honors. 541 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:22,240 Speaker 1: So truly a phenomenal figure in the history of computer 542 00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:28,200 Speaker 1: science and a testament to what you can achieve when 543 00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:34,600 Speaker 1: you have ambition, and you have skill and talent, and 544 00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:39,600 Speaker 1: you have dedication to your craft. A phenomenal life's story, 545 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:44,320 Speaker 1: and so I am glad to have dedicated an episode 546 00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:48,160 Speaker 1: to Grace Hopper. I hope all of you out there 547 00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:51,920 Speaker 1: are well. I hope those of you who are observing 548 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:57,759 Speaker 1: Memorial Day have a peaceful day of reflection. And I 549 00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:07,680 Speaker 1: will talk to you again really soon. Tech Stuff is 550 00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:12,239 Speaker 1: an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the 551 00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:15,920 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 552 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:16,680 Speaker 1: favorite shows.