Bulky room-sized computers are history! How your phone fits into the story
Over the years, computers have gone from the size of your living room to a pocket-sized rectangle most people won’t leave home without. As technology has changed, let’s look at some of the biggest advancements that happened in what seems like the blink of an eye.
Some of the first computers aren’t even what we could call computers today. Back in the 1940s, they were simply machines following a simple pattern. These machines were used to find a matching set of numbers that changed daily, allowing them to perform a task faster than hundreds of people could do in a week. For example, they played a crucial role in decoding messages during World War II.
At this point in time, computers were mostly mechanical machines and required rooms large enough to house the more than ten-foot-long machines.
Speaking a computer’s language
Not long after, in the 1950s computer “languages” were created. Every computer at its most basic level interprets symbols differently. You can’t tell a computer to search for cute dog photos without typing it into the search bar. Likewise, a series of numbers, words, and symbols known as a “code language” would tell the computer what to do.
Over the next 20 years, significant advancements in technology reduced the size of computers to the point that it could rest on a desk. These computers were less mechanical than their predecessors, and it was the beginning of a new era.
In the 1970s, modern computers started to take off for consumers to use. However, the devices would take decades of advancement to become available to a majority of the public.
Wi-Fi and pocket-sized computers
It wasn’t until the 2000s that Wi-Fi was used for computers, ushering in an age of connectivity unlike any other. By this point, phones started to use the same technology as computers. Those giant bricks that the cool neighbors on the street would show their friends finally became “smart.”
After the first smartphone was introduced, people had access to technology more powerful than the computers used in the Apollo 11 mission – all in the palm of their hand. Today, it isn’t surprising that technology has become difficult to understand.
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Sources: Live Science, MIT News
