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Computers
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Below is one of our free research papers on Computers. If the term paper below is not exactly what you're looking for, you can search our essay database for other topics.
Computers
Unknown A common misconception about computers is that they are smarter than humans. Actually, the degree of a computerıs intelligence depends on the speed of its ignorance. Todayıs complex computers are not really intelligent at all. The intelligence is in the people who design them. Therefore, in order to understand the intelligence of computers, one must first look at the history of computers, the way computers handle information, and, finally, the methods of programming the machines. The predecessor to todayıs computers was nothing like the machines we use today. The first known computer was Charles Babbageıs Analytical Engine; designed in 1834. (Constable 9) It was a remarkable device for its time. In fact, the Analytical Engine required so much power and would have been so much more complex than the manufacturing methods of the time, it could never be built. No more than twenty years after Babbageıs death, Herman Hollerith designed an electromechanical machine that used punched cards to tabulate the 1890 U.S. Census. His tabulation machine was so successful, he formed IBM to supply them. (Constable 11) The computers of those times worked with gears and mechanical computation. Unlike todayıs chip computers, the first computers were non-programmable, electromechnical machines. No one would ever confuse the limited power of those early machines with the wonder of the human brain. An example was the ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. It w...
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Submitted by: 4freeessays
Date Submitted: 07-07-06 9:35am Category: Social Issues Words: 1830 Pages: 7.32 |