WEBVTT - Computers from the Past 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:09.040 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:14.240 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everybody, 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:16.520 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette, 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.040 and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.600 And sitting next to me, as always, with a really 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.040 enigmatic smile on his face, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:32.239 Hey there, having a Mona Lisa moment. Oh okay, alright, Well, 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.120 you know the vacuum tubes are all humming and everything 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.680 is ready to go. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.120 We have to start this this podcast off a very 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:48.360 specific way. We do yes with listener mail, I swear 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.360 you moved that on purpose always. So today's listener mail 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:57.200 comes from Jason from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Jason says, hey, guys, 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.680 I was having a conversation about computer technology the other 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.480 day and the people I was talking to mention something 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.120 about old computers where you had to carry around a 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.600 box of punch cards that served as the program. However, 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:10.680 if you happen to drop the box and got them 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.720 out of order, you essentially lost your program. I'm only 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.399 twenty one and was wondering if this technology was a 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:18.760 bit before my time, because I don't remember a thing 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.679 about it. I love hearing about these older technologies and 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:23.920 how they work, and would be grateful if you could 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.920 enlighten me on this subject. I enjoy listening to you guys, 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.520 and congratulations again on your one episode and too many 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.600 more to come. Well, thanks, Jason. We're going to tackle 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:35.600 that a little bit today because we're going to actually 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:40.920 talk about computers from the past nifty You know, it's 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.720 actually it's more than a bit before your time. It's 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:48.880 actually sixty four bits before your time. Uh that you Oh, 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.160 I see what you did there? So um, yeah, I 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:57.160 upgraded your Internet. But let's let's let's let's let's take 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.440 a step in the way back machine, shall we. Sherman 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.080 and um try and come back all the way to 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.280 the like the earliest computational sort of engines, and then 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.280 we'll work our way forward. I've got some stuff I 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:10.360 can talk about as far as the punch cards go, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.720 because I came across a great paper written by a 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.720 former engineer at IBM who has uh he kind of 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.799 shares his experience of using punch Cards for the first time, 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.320 and it's it really is a great read. I'll just 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:25.320 read a couple of excerpts from it to kind of 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.520 give you guys an idea. But before we do that, let's, um, 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.959 let's let's think back a bit. Now, computers really are 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:37.520 number crunching machines. You know, everything you see and do 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.560 on a computer is the result of different numbers being 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.280 crunched in different ways. You've got you've got two different 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:46.400 things going on. You've got a data stream coming in 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:48.680 and you've got a set of instructions going on. The 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.480 instructions tell the computer what to do to the data stream, 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.600 and then you get your result. I was wondering what 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:56.280 what all those crumbs were on my desk. Now I 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:01.280 know they're the crumbs numbers, numbers. Yeah, this is gonna 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.079 be a hell of a show, guys. I I would 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.840 like to apologize on the behalf of Pallette. I mean, 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.600 even I have my limits, folks. Um. So so let's 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:15.800 let's go back to about five BC. All right, So 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.560 that's that. That's what that was a PC junior, Right, Yeah, 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.840 that's yes, exactly. Now that was the first Apple No, no, no, 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.760 five hundred BC that's it's well beyond the first apple. 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.200 Did you get where I'm going with that? Okay? Anyway, 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.560 so five n b C that's when you start seeing 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.600 counting boards show up. This was a way for people 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.800 to keep track of numbers that were bigger than ten, 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.080 because you know, we have ten fingers, most of us anyway, 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:42.880 and uh, you know, if you're lucky and then um 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:47.200 eight fingers and two thumbs. Alright, fine, fine, but if 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.560 you want, if you wanted to try it exactly, if 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.360 you wanted to track numbers bigger than that, then uh, 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.600 you know, you you had to store it in your 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.280 head or if you were talking about really big numbers, 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:57.680 you would want something to help you out. So that's 0:03:57.680 --> 0:03:59.840 where counting boards came in. A couple hundred years later 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.160 that kind of evolved into the abbacus, and then we 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:06.280 can skip ahead quite a bit. Okay, how far I 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:08.600 was gonna go to sixteen seventy nine? You got something 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.640 before that? Uh yeah, actually, uh h, I had a 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:15.840 sixteen twenty three, which was actually there. It was before 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.440 that because Leonardo da Vinci had actually drawn up plans 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:23.680 for a calculator, a mechanical calculator. But William schickerd had 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.880 created the first one in sixteen twenty three where actually 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.880 built the thing. And then you know in Blaze, Pascal 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:35.320 had the Pascalene, which was an arithmetic machine, and that 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.040 was the first volume. You know, one that was the 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.480 first calculator was actually created in volume around sixteen six. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.919 Actually built fifty of them. But I'm assuming that was 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:48.800 all by hand, so we're not talking mass production. Yeah, no, 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.640 I don't think they had assembly lines back in sixteen Yes, 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:54.960 but you were, I'm betting based on your data, I'm 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:59.000 betting you're thinking, Uh, that guy who invented calculus so 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.840 got free liveness, who I would like to jump up 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.160 and down upon his grave for inventing calculus. Well, you know, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:07.920 for those of you who are going to write us 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.159 and tell us that he didn't invite invent calculus a calculus, 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:16.080 well he he independently came up with calculus at the 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:18.320 same time, around the same time as Isaac Newton, which 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.920 I always thinks, so yeah, it's it's it's one of 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.040 those one things where two different brilliant thinkers come up 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.440 with the same sort of system um independently and it 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.400 does happen. It's pretty neat stuff when it happens. But yeah, 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.760 Newton is the one you should be yelling at though right, well, 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:38.279 I'm gonna yell linus anyway. So he also but because 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:42.720 he also introduced binary mathematics, and now binary mathematics, we're 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.400 talking about using either of the numbers. Now people are 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:48.320 going to write in because I'm calling it a number 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:53.520 using either zero or one as the your digits. And uh, 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.360 that's what all of modern computing is based off of. 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.520 Our these binary digits, or bits as they are also known. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.200 And uh, I'm that suppose the guy who came up 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.640 with this idea of using bits um Now, it would 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.280 be a while before anyone had come up with a 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:11.000 practical purpose for them as far as computing goes. But 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.479 that's where it got start. What's the next date you 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:16.600 wanted to throw out there? Because I'm gonna I want to. 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.000 I've got a big list of dates here, and I 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.479 have another big gap. Okay, Uh, the next date that 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.400 I wanted to bring up is eighteen o four, eighteen 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.440 o five. Yes, that's uh, that has nothing to do 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.600 with computers, or does it, Because that thing you're having 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:39.920 to do with weaving, Yes, it's unbelievable. Joseph Murray chaquad yes, yes, yeah, 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.400 this is a guy who um yes, Jacques Jacques, Yes, 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:49.280 you shouldn't say. Alright, so what did you said that? Right? 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.720 What did Joe Mury do? Well? Joe Mury, he was 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.120 he invented an automated loom. And you might say, okay, well, 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.200 was an automated loom have to do with computers? Well, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.680 he did it. He used method that had already been 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.720 used before, but he perfected it. It was a method 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:09.120 where he used a punched cards to allow the needles 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.520 of the loom to pass through to create specific patterns 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.800 weaving patterns. Um. So it's sort of like you would 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:18.600 see on a player piano, because that is something you 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:21.840 might I'm guessing that those of you listing might have 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.200 actually seen with your own eyes how the digits pop 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.040 up and down with the holes in the paper. Right. 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.320 So the yeah, the holes in these cards were what 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:32.640 allowed certain needles to go through at certain times to 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.520 create these patterns in in uh, when he was weaving. 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.320 And why would this be important? Well, it would allow 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.960 you to create patterns that only a master weaver could 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:47.680 really make on his or her own. And then automated 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.200 in such a way that anyone running this loom could 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.440 create the same pattern, which, by the way, tended to 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.240 tick off the master weavers a lot. Yeah, they actually 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.880 burned quite a few of these automated looms and stop him. 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:05.480 But but they definitely protested and as a result, textiles 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.280 in France, Uh, the prices dropped quite a bit because 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:09.920 it turned up there was a much cheaper way of 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:14.480 producing these really nice weaves. Um. I'm surprised that you 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.520 weren't the person to drop the trivia effect here, But 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:20.040 since you left the opening for me, I'm going to 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.200 point out that they also, in addition to setting fire 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:25.560 to these limbs, like to drop wooden shoes in there, 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.120 you know, the sabo that's a bot, which gave rise 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:33.439 to the term sabotage and later would produce an awesome 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:38.560 Beastie Boys song. So thank you, Joe Marie. But yeah, 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.120 the getting back to it, the whole reason we're talking 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.520 about is because the punched cards, those of course come 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.880 into play later on. So the next the next day 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.800 I have is one. Yeah. Yeah, that's when Babbage, Charles 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.480 Babbage first invented the idea of the difference engine. Yes, 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.520 he would later go on in four to come up 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:01.520 with the analytical engine. Um, neither of which he ever 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.080 actually saw a maid. No, he made bits of them, 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.000 but never created an entire working engine. Now this was 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:12.720 a shame. This was an incredible idea, and more so, 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:14.960 the more we look back on it, the more we 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.000 realize how incredible this machine would have been had he 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.480 been able to create it at the time, because it 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.600 took into account many of the things that modern computers 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.280 actually do. I mean, it would have done these things 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.520 on a different scale, but that's it's and on a 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:34.280 mechanical scale, not an electrical scale. But it was still 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.800 really cool. And the idea here was that, um, you know, 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:39.600 if if he, if he could have created it would 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.040 have been the steam powered, massive thing made out of 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.839 brass and steel and you could run computations through it. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.800 And um, it's just a shame that he never you know, 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.079 he he realized during his lifetime that he would never 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:55.160 be able to actually build it. Well he uh, he 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.520 had a problem. There was no the venture capitalist had 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.320 not been invented yet, being on the government to uh 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.120 to fund him, and they basically figured out that rather 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.200 than finding navigation for ships, which is what he said 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:08.880 he wanted to do with this machine. He wanted to 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:12.000 be able to to uh, to run calculations to help 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:16.920 people travel over the sea more safely and efficiently. Basically, 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.719 he was an inventor who wanted to build better computational 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:22.640 machines and they said, yeah, we're not giving you money 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.800 for that. Dude. Yeah, he wanted to rush the Singularity 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:30.839 on a lot earlier than we would have seen otherwise. Um. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:32.959 But despite the fact that no one built this machine 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:36.760 for for a couple hundred years actually because um, well 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.880 a little less than two hundred, I guess, uh, because 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:44.880 it has been built uh in London. Um was that 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.600 since then? And since then? Yes, yes, I think two 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.080 thousand two is when when they built that that model. 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.400 So that was a long time between design and production. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.280 But despite the fact that was never built, it didn't 0:10:56.320 --> 0:11:00.120 stop people from writing programs for it. Well, in know, 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.440 give a hobbyist to a project. One of those would 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:09.800 have been the Countess of Lovelace. Yes, not that they 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:14.360 ever met, no, and but she created programs for Babbage's 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:19.880 theoretical engine using the binary system. Hey, so there you go. 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.880 You've got your first binary coded program for a computer 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:27.080 that doesn't exist. And now we can say that about 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.880 lots of different things in modern times, to build lots 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.560 of programs for computers that can't run them yet. Well, 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.880 you know, it's uh. With Babbage's machine finally being built 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.400 in the two, you know, the twenty first century, it's 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:40.760 very much like every other machine that's being built in 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:42.760 the twenty first century. It was obsolete as soon as 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.760 it was exactly so, setting a precedent there. Skipping out 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.920 a few more years. In eighteen fifty, you've got George 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.080 Boole who invent and logic that provides the basis of 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:57.080 of computer logic and is far too complex for me 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.520 to go into here. Let's see what what what's the 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.440 next thing you want to hit? I mean there, I'm 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.000 jumping ahead quite a bit from here. Otherwise, Yeah, it 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.240 became obvious when I was doing the research for this 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.840 that there's far too much to cover in our normal 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:12.840 time frame, so I cut out some dates here and there. Okay, 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.360 So what's the next thing you have? Um, I'm I'm 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.240 getting towards the uh, the early early twentieth century in 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:24.280 my notes around nineteen eleven, actually, when a bunch of 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.520 you know, basically, these machines that existed at this point 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.760 where advanced calculators. If if that, I mean they were 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.760 used for business purposes, and um, you know, business calculators 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.439 were pretty popular. They had they had reason to, uh 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:39.520 to do these kinds of calculations. I mean, the the 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:44.120 census needed advanced math, um, and I mean they weren't 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:48.640 really used for science, so you were just tabulating numbers. Um. Well, 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.720 nineteen eleven, a bunch of business machine companies decided to 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.280 get together and they created a new company called this 0:12:56.320 --> 0:13:00.640 is a really catchy name, Computing, tabulating Recording Company. It 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.520 was so catchy that they decided to change it in 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.920 to International Business Machines. Hey, one of the initials of 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:13.000 that IBM. I think I've heard that before. Yes, it's 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:18.440 a it's a relatively small company, but they were they 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:20.520 were to go on to be one of the first 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:25.040 well you know this business machine manufacturing, but they uh 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.880 sort of set a precedent later on. Right. Well, well, 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.439 before we get further in there, I had one date 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.360 before that, nineteen that was when William DeForest invented the 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.800 vacuum tube, Yes, which provided the basis for what would 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.680 eventually the thing that would eventually replace the vacuum tube 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.079 was the transistor, but that wasn't around yet. So we 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.640 had these these machines using enormous vacuum tubes instead of tiny, 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.000 relatively tiny transistors, and those are going to be important 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:54.640 in some of the machines, were getting ready to talk 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:59.480 about so UM. That was when IBM adopted the eighty 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:05.000 column pun card UH format. The so the eighty columns 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.480 was your typical punch card. You were asking us Jason 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.520 about the punch cards. Um, this was the way that 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:14.000 you could design programs for early computers. Now when we're talking, 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.520 we're really talking about running specific um functions. Were not 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.240 really talking about programs yet. That's that's kind of a 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:26.080 little early for that. But the punched cards that IBM 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.400 settled on that became the standard for them, and a 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.800 lot of the machines could only read the first seventy 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.040 two columns, so you'd say, well, what would you use 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:35.480 the last eight columns for a lot of programmers would 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.200 use those columns in order to create a serial number 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.440 so that you could keep the punch cards in the 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.240 correct order. Because anyone who has worked with a punched 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.760 card system would tell you if you drop those cards 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:53.520 and they all fall out and get out of place. Yeah, 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.440 that's a bad thing. It's even worse than slides. Yeah, 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:59.120 because you know, at least with slides you can look 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:01.720 at them and go, hey, that one goes here. So 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.800 then we've got six. We have Alan Turing doing the 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.000 publishing is on computational numbers, which was also very important 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:13.040 for theoretical computer principles. Um. And then I've got the 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.440 the first what what the United States anyway recognizes as 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:21.120 the the first electronic digital computer. Do you know what 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:25.200 this one is? Um? I what sort of depends on 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.920 which one is what a judge decided was the first one. 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.840 So because because there is some debate about that exactly 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:36.720 so legally in the United States anyway, the first computer, 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.840 electronic digital computer was invented by John Vincent A, Tennis 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:44.360 Offt and Clifford Berry, and it was called the A 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:49.560 B C. Isn't that clever? Yes? For theisoft Berry computer. YEA. 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.800 So that was that was But in started in the 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.960 late nineteen thirties, it was completed in the early nineteen forties, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.440 and it wasn't until nineteen seventy three that the US 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.480 judge said that that was, in fact the first digital 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:06.120 electronic digital computer, as opposed to one that was had 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:11.480 an interesting acronym for a name, Yeah, eniac. That was 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.160 the that was the competing computer in the court system 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.840 for the first electronic digital computer, although they were sort 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.480 of different. Yeah, oh no, they were very different. So 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.680 so all right, so that was nineteen round eight. You've 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.480 got Conrad Zeus who builds his Z one calculating machine, 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.600 which was the first programmable calculating machine. Some people call 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:35.560 that the first computer. Um, you've got You've got Touring 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.360 himself working on a system that was directed by m 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.800 Dr Tommy Flowers. It was a computer that no one 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.720 outside of a certain group of people really knew about. 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:50.640 It was called Colossus. Colossus, and that that was. It 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.240 was so secret that that there were no contemporary reports 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:58.000 on Colossus, and all the documentation to show how to 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:02.200 operate Colossus was destroyed by the end of World War two. 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.440 They didn't want anyone to find out how this machine worked, 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:07.840 and it was used as a way of cracking codes 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.359 and things like that. Yes, uh, I actually wrote a 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:12.600 blog post about that in the tech Stuff blog not 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.360 terribly long ago. Although you may not recognize it by 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:20.280 its title. Um, somebody who Uh. They actually rebuilt Colossus 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.680 in uh in the UK at Bletchley Park a few 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.840 years ago. And uh, there's a musician who writes what 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:31.680 they call chip tunes, which is using electronic equipment basically 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.359 gaming equipment mostly, uh to write electronic music. Well, he 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.240 actually went in and sampled sounds that Colossus made to 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.040 make a record from it. And uh, you know, I 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.280 happened to hear this BBC podcast all about it, and 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.719 I learned that Colossus actually didn't crack the codes itself. 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.520 It was calculating the positions of the wheels on the 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:55.720 German code machines. It imagining that it took a room 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.560 full of computer to calculate possible positions for the for 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.199 the wheel, so that cryptographers could take that information and 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.640 then use it to crack the codes. You know, I'm 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.800 pretty sure you know an iPhone could well yeah, but 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:11.800 at the time, but at the time, you know, it's 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:15.480 very very important. In three, you've got the Harvard Mark 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:20.120 one digital sequence controlled computer and the first computer bug. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.280 It was a real bug. Yes, it was a moth. 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.119 There was a moth inside the Harvard Mark one and 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.600 it touched a relay and it made the computer fail, 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.720 and thus we get bug. Yes we didn't, you know, 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:43.080 not a features in. That's when we finally have the 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.440 invention of the transistor. Now it's gonna be a while 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:47.920 before the transistors make their way into computers, but this 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.960 is what eventually allows us to create computers that are 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:55.640 not the size of your average gym. These these old 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:58.159 computers were enormous. They took up huge amount of space. 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.320 And this is all a very formative time in computers 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.160 because it's a time when people are starting to rethink 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.080 what computers could be used for. Um X, Arthur Burkes, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.639 Herman Goldstein, and John von Newman came up with a 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.280 paper called Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of Electronic 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.400 Computing Instrument uh and Jonathan's looking at me like, why 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.120 are you bringing this up? Well, it's because a lot 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:27.600 of people consider this the basically the document that started 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.760 computer science, because it was discussing things like how data 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.760 and instructions should be stored together and how instructions could 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.840 be uh changed by other instructions, which is something that 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.439 Conrade Zeusa didn't believe. He said that that was a 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.160 horrible horrible thing and it shouldn't be allowed to happen otherwise. Uh, 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:50.520 dogs and cats living together are um. But actually this 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.920 is what allowed advanced computer programming to to come about, 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.920 was people started thinking about computers and how they could 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:02.280 be used, you know, with the concepts, and as the 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.520 forties roll on and and people start thinking about what 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.880 computers really could be used to handle. Uh, they they 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.560 that was really the end of it being a computational machine, 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.439 in the beginning of it being used for you know, 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:20.479 other kinds of of uses. So let's say go up 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:24.720 to that's when Touring creates the a C, which was 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.440 the first programmable digital computer, the ACE. He also publishes 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.359 the Turing test. So the Turing test is of course 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.879 the famous test of finding out, you know, are you 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.479 human or are you are you computer? Right? If if 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.639 a computer is able to pass the Touring test, it 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.040 means that it is able to fool a certain percentage 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:46.280 of people into thinking it's another person. Mm hmm. Touring 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.840 tests are also what we used to base the Capture 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.480 system on. That's the system where if you have to 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:54.480 you know, when you're creating a profile on a on 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:56.720 a site and you see the jefas put in a 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:59.280 certain sequence of letters and members, like the jumbled up 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:01.760 type written looking letters and numbers with a line through it. 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:04.640 That's a captured test, and that's designed so that it, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:08.920 theoretically anyway, is easy for humans to complete, but difficult 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.439 for computers to complete. That's not always the case because people, 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:14.160 you know, there are hackers out there who are clever 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:16.320 enough to make computers that are clever enough to pass it. 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:17.560 And then of course you have to come up with 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.679 a new test, but that's all based off the touring test. Uh. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.159 In fifty six, IBM built the first hard drive it 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.400 had had a five megabyte capacity and it cost one 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:36.720 million dollars. Yeah. Yeah, my iPod has I think eighty 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:42.360 gigabit gigabyte capzi. Yeah, it's a it's a lot less 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:46.200 than a million anyway. Uh. And then by fifty nine, 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:48.639 that's when you start seeing computers using transistors instead of 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:53.440 vacuum tubes. So the yeah, transistor was invented in forty seven, 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:55.280 and then in fifty nine, this is is when you finally 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.720 start seeing them show up in computers. Um. But you know, 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:00.920 the ones with the vacuum tubes just sound better, man, 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.520 I think you're thinking about something else. So sixty one 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:09.120 that's when you get the first integrated circuits commercially produced, 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.760 And in sixty three this is this one. I like, 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:14.560 I mean, you may have some more dates to fill 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.760 in through here. Actually I skipped ahead again because I 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:20.040 want to I want to read about this in more detail. Yeah, 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:21.679 we would love to be able to do a series 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:23.560 of these. Actually, that cat should be a spoken word 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.880 album right there, because the early days of computing. We'll 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:28.800 just we'll we'll pitch that. If you guys all write 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:30.320 in and say we really want to hear that, then 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:31.959 we get to do it. If you write it and 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:33.639