Computer Technology and its Early Impact on American Society By Jared Trees U.S. History 261 Laura Siebuhr March 10, 1999 Computer Technology and its Early Impact on American Society Computers, perhaps, are the most important innovation in the history of the world to date. Without modern computers today, the world would not be able to function in the manner of which people today are accustomed. Americans take for granted their ability to go to a machine to withdraw cash, scan large amounts of groceries through a barcode scanner, or type a report on a word processor. It is computers that make these tasks, which most Americans take for granted, possible. These computers emerged in the mid- twentieth century and, by the early 1980s, would become a part of mainstream American society. Essentially, the modern infiltration of computers in American society is the continuing result of what many consider a revolution. Like political revolutions and industrial revolutions, the computer revolution is not one change or a few, small changes, but rather a complex integration and interrelationship of almost innumerable changes. To understand how computers changed American society, some background on the development of the earliest computers is necessary. The origins of modern electronic computing began as a result of the scientific emphasis behind World War II, especially the need for mathematical computation . The Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania was the birthplace of the first electronic computer . This computer was called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC , which was completed in 1946 by John Mauchly and John Prosper Eckert . As large of an achievement as the ENIAC was, it was hardly an ideal computer. The ENIAC used approximately 18,000 vacuum tubes . The ENIAC also used approximately 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6000 switches, and 1500 relays . Simply put, the ENIAC relied on an enormous amount of electronic parts and electricity. This made the ENIAC rather prone to failure. The ENIAC also had the problem of limited information storage . This problem was addressed by the development of the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, or EDVAC. The EDVAC was the first computer to use the concept of information stored in memory. The EDVAC would also use binary numbers instead of decimal numbers, which increased its computation abilities threefold . The EDVAC was eventually completed in 1952 and its internal memory design paved the way for all future computers . By 1952, even as the earliest computers were still evolving, the computer created perhaps its first big moment in the national limelight. The computer company Remington Rand convinced the television network CBS to use their computer, the UNIVAC, to predict the winner of the presidential election between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson . Stevenson was the early favorite in the polls, but the program used by the UNIVAC predicted a landslide victory by Eisenhower. On election night 1952, a mock UNIVAC was setup at UNIVAC headquarters with CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite reporting at CBS headquarters. The event, originally a publicity stunt by UNIVAC, was seen all across the United States . The UNIVAC predicted the eventual Eisenhower victory by a 438 to 93 vote margin, which nearly matched the actual outcome of 442 to 89 . The American public now had its first taste of the potential power of computer technology in their everyday lives. Besides the early recognition computers received by the prediction of a presidential election, it was becoming increasingly necessary for a tool that could organize huge amounts of statistical information, especially for business uses. The Social Security Administration of the United States government was the first federal bureaucracy to require the use of computers. The SSA originally used electromechanical devices that processed information on punched cards . In 1954, amendments to the Social Security Act required that a permanent record of every American's annual income and a cumulative total of all individual be tallied . With 320 million punch cards needing to be processed, the SSA was in danger of being bogged down by such a huge amount of information processing. The IBM 705 computer, which was specially designed for the SSA, came to the rescue. Instead of using punched cards, the IBM 705 used reels of magnetic tape to store information. Each tape could store Social Security information of 60,000 individuals . In the late 1950s, vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors as the primary parts of computers . Transistors, unlike their vacuum tube predecessors, were much smaller and generated much less heat ; consequently, transistors were much more efficient. A new type of memory, called magnetic-core memory, increased access to stored information . In the early 1960s, internal computer parts shrank even further with the development of the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit could fit hundreds of tiny transistors onto a single chip made of silicon . The development of smaller internal components also, in turn, made for smaller and less expensive computer units than the giant mainframe computers of past decades. These newer computers, which were small enough to fit in classrooms and research labs, were known as minicomputers . Even with the early appearance of minicomputers, mainframes were changing corporate America. By 1963, American businesses either purchased or leased four billion dollars worth of computer technology . The federal government became the number one purchaser of computers, with some 1250 used at a wide variety of federal agencies . Many Americans, fearful of the accuracy of computers, paid the Internal Revenue Service over $8.5 million in taxes that would otherwise have gone unpaid . Minicomputers became the popular choice of computer during the 1960s. Instead of using complicated control consoles, minicomputers used video-display terminals for data entry. These minicomputers were also more useful than older mainframes because of multitasking, or the ability of a computer to seemingly do more than one task at a time . Even as computers continued to shrink in size, most Americans still viewed them as distant, almost alien machines that did not have any direct relevance in their lives. Ironically, if computers were to have any real impact on American society, the "bigger is better" view of computers had to be eradicated. If computers were to become more relevant in a democratic society, computers would have to become smaller and more accessible to everyday Americans. As computers became more pervasive in American society, more uses for them were created. The field of artificial intelligence developed with the goal of making computers "act like humans ." Artificial intelligence, or AI, was pioneered by Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider . In 1960, Licklider published the academic paper Man-Computer Symbiosis, which laid the initial foundation for AI computing . Licklider, unlike many AI researchers, did not believe in the utopian ideas that computers would one day rival human intelligence in endeavors such as playing chess or problem solving . The main idea of Man-Computer Symbiosis was that AI should instead be used to "augment the human intellect ." Licklider felt that computers should be developed to enable "..people to use computers to enhance their everyday work ," as well as to free up time for actual "thinking" as opposed to doing low-level tasks such as numerical calculations and graph plotting . Perhaps the most famous use of artificial intelligence during the early computer era was ELIZA. ELIZA was an artificial intelligence computer program, written by Joseph Weizenbaum of MIT, that mimicked the actions of a psychotherapist. Weizenbaum discovered that "when a computer seems to respond with human thoughtfulness and concern, some people immediately confide in it as if it were a friend, revealing their vulnerabilities with alarming openness ." ELIZA worked by processing statements entered by a person and returning them in the form of a question. The program would also mix in "neutral comments such as 'Please tell me more,' or 'I don't understand what you mean .'" This mix of rephrased questions and neutral sentences gave the false impression that the computer actually thought and understood the user's statements. The huge shift in scope of computer component technology, as well as in computer pervasiveness in America, was the development of the microprocessor. The microprocessor is a small chip with "thousands or millions of transistors ," and was first developed by Ted Hoff of Intel Corporation in 1971 . The first microprocessor, called the 4004, was intended as a general use computer chip for devices such as electronic calculators . The microprocessor, with its small size, was able to be embedded into a wide variety of devices, which allowed it to eventually perform jobs as different as "..alerting a midnight refrigerator raider that the door has been left ajar, regulating the emissions from a magnetron tube in a microwave oven..., adjusting the mixture of gasoline and air fed to a gasoline engine, or controlling the lens aperture and shutter speed of a camera ." Besides computer chips that could be used in everyday devices, banking also became subject to the impact of computers. The first automated teller machines, or ATMs, were installed at banks during the late 1960s and originally functioned only as cash withdrawal machines (Time-Life, 74). Early ATMs "read the magnetic stripe on a plastic card for such information as a customer's identification number and a preset withdrawal limit ." The transaction would be recorded on a small computer inside the ATM itself . By not being dependent on a centralized computer such as a mainframe, automated teller machines became increasingly popular, especially as new features were added. As computer technology became more dependable during the 1970s and early 1980s, ATMs became a virtual necessity. Supermarkets and service stations installed ATMs and by the mid-1980s, an estimated "40 percent of bank customers nationwide [in the U.S.] were using ATMs for more than half their banking transactions.." Bar coding and scanning, which increased the speed of retail transactions, also extended the reach of computers further into American society. The bar code, as it is generally known, was invented in 1959 by Girard Feissel . In 1970, bar codes underwent industry standardization and by 1972, the first grocery store, a Kroger in Cincinnati, Ohio, performed an 18-month test of bar codes. This marked the first successful use of bar codes for point-of-sale use in the United States. The new inclusion of computers into American society was not merely physical. A new generation of computer pioneers and visionaries were putting their own stamp on how they thought computer technology could and should be used. Just as the so-called counterculture clashed with the values of the older generation, new ideas of computer technology usage were destroying the older, "bigger is better," corporate coldness of computers. This ideological shift was key to the development of microcomputers. Much of this change came from the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Even during the early 1970s, there were still lingerings of the counterculture that sought liberation in all aspects of American society, which included freeing "communication technologies from vested corporate interests." During this time, computer technology was rigidly controlled by the U.S. government and large corporations, and was also quite expensive . People like Ted Nelson, who coined the term hypertext during the mid-1960s, saw a world in which computer technology could be easily accessed by average people who had little experience with computers . This "counterculture" view on computer access, combined with a growing amateur electronic and computer hobbyist movement , helped the area known as Silicon Valley in California become the birthplace of the world's first microcomputer industry. Before the rise of the first microcomputer boom in Silicon Valley, however, was the actual development of the first microprocessor based computer, or microcomputer. The Altair 8800 was built in January 1975 by small electronics kit supplier Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems, or MITS, of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Altair 8800, unfortunately, was little more than a compact minicomputer. It was, however, the first affordable computer, as it could "..be built for under $400." The Altair 8800 was fairly unreliable and unable to anything that was considered useful. The Altair 8800's main unit consisted of "a single box, containing the central processor, with a panel of switches and neon bulbs on the front; it had no display, no keyboard, and not enough memory to do anything useful. " Needless to say, "computer liberation" was not realized with the Altair 8800. The young microcomputer industry of Silicon Valley, the area of California "..between San Jose and San Francisco.." changed forever in 1976. Apple Computer was founded by computer hobbyists Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak. In early 1975, Jobs and Wozniak began attending the Homebrew Computer Club, which inspired them to build a marketable computer . Unlike most who tried entering the fledgling home computer market, Apple Computer enjoyed long term success. Within eight years of its founding, Apple Computer would maintain an annual sales rate of $1 billion and would "take less time to reach the Fortune 500 than any other start-up [from any industry] in the history of the index." By 1977, Apple Computer, along with Commodore and Tandy, helped form the early foundation of the American home computer industry. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was clear the computer technology had become deeply rooted into American society and culture. This period saw changes not only in the infiltration of computers themselves, but also in the creation of new forms of entertainment. Americans could now use their free time engaged in recreation that was changed by computer technology. The creation of the video game industry may be the best example of computer technology affecting American entertainment habits. The first actual video game, called "Spacewar," was written in 1962 by Steve Russell, a graduate student at MIT. Spacewar consisted of "two dots that represented spacecraft, each of which was controlled by a separate lever." Spacewar became popular among college students across the United States. Before the concept of home video games systems became popular, Ralph Baer designed the first working home video game system between 1967 and 1968. Since the microprocessor had not yet been invented, the game system used approximately 40 diodes that created crude lines for graphics. The video game system created by Baer became known as the Odyssey and went on sale in 1972. Even as Ralph Baer developed the first home video game system, another man had greater ambitions. In 1972, Atari was founded by Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell and Atari invented the first commercially successful coin-operated video game called "Pong." Pong was essentially a crude ping-pong game that reported the player's scores with large numbers. When Pong was tested at a tavern in Sunnyvale, California, "..the sawed-off plastic milk jug that was meant to catch the quarters was filled to overflowing." After Pong's early success, Atari entered the home video game market in late 1977. Although not originally successful, the Atari Video Computer System, or VCS, eventually sold between 12 and 15 million units and Atari became known as "a giant in the home-entertainment game field." Along with the success of home video games, over one million arcade consoles were in operation [in the U.S.] by the early 1980s. Video games were now a fixed part of American society. Music was also changed by computer technology. The first practical electronic synthesizer was invented by Robert Moog, a doctoral student at Cornell University. Moog's synthesizer was introduced to the public in 1964 and subsequently became "an incredibly popular instrument in the 1970s. " The Moog synthesizer was difficult to use when adjustments in tuning were necessary. The problem of tuning synthesizers disappeared with the development of the first digital synthesizer, called the Synclavier synthesizer, in 1980. Between 1982 and 1983, the MIDI computer standard allowed information to be transferred between digital electronic instruments and computers. By 1983, digital synthesizers could be purchased for around $500. The development of digital music allowed more people to create music and redefined methods used in music production and editing. Eventually, even mainstream American movies became subject to the influence of computers. The first famous appearance of computers in movies was the HAL 9000 in the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 2001, HAL takes over the spaceship during a mission bound for Jupiter. A less frightening representation of computer technology in movies was the creation of the legendary Star Wars trilogy, which began with 1977's Star Wars: A New Hope (Henderson, 6). In the Star Wars trilogy, creator George Lucas "combined the universal story of the hero's journey with specific concerns and images from our own times (7)." Among these "images" were the droids, or humanoid robots, named Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio. Within Artoo-Detoo were the ".. plans for the Galactic Empire's battle station, the Death Star," which were presumably stored in a manner similar to computer program storage. By 1983, Hollywood was making movies about computers that more closely resembled actual computer use than the work of science fiction. In WarGames, which starred Matthew Broderick, a knowledgeable computer user named David wants to find out if any computers in his area have a new computer game that he wants to play. After searching for a toy company on-line, a Defense Department computer answers instead and challenges David to a game of "Global Thermonuclear War." Besides its obvious Cold War overtones, WarGames represents the growing use of home computers by computer-savvy American children during the early 1980s. From the development of ENIAC in 1946 to the early 1980s, computers and computer technology have changed the way American society functions. During these years, computers simplified information storage and manipulation, changed the way the United States government operates, and changed how Americans access and spend money. More importantly, computers and computer technology changed the very nature of Americans themselves. Computers have created new forms of entertainment for Americans and have changed the way traditional forms of entertainment such as movies and music. Even the traditional newscast was impacted by computers. The computer has proven to be a valuable tool for making everyday life easier for Americans. None of the changes in American society made by computers, however, could have happened without the efforts of computer hardware pioneers. These changes also could not have taken place without the efforts of individuals who saw a future of easy to use computers and computer technology for all Americans. These changes that occurred between the late 1940s and the early 1980s have made modern America possible and will continue to change American society in the future. Bibliography Campbell-Kelly, Martin and Aspray, William. Computer: A History of the Information Machine. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996. Connors, Martin and Craddock, Jim, eds. VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1998. Ebert, Roger. Roger Ebert's Video Companion. Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1993. Graham, Neill. The Mind Tool: Computers and their Impact on Society. San Francisco: West Publishing Company, 1989. Henderson, Mary. Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. 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