Computer History and Impact of Computers to the World

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Personal computers have completely revolutionized the way the world, lives, works and conducts business. Strictly-speaking, computers arrived on the scene way back in 1936 when one Konrad Zuse produced what was then called the Z1 computer. This was a cumbersome machine that could perform simple calculations and also crunch simple data. This was not as sophisticated as what we have today but it served to set the foundation for further research and in 1944, John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry from Iowa University built on this model and produced several innovations of the computer which was capable of producing arithmetic calculations, parallel [processing, memory regeneration and other simple computing tasks. The research was taken further at Harvard University, then IBM, the business conglomerate joined the fray and in 1953 produced what was then the world’s first sophisticated computer. Even then, it was still large, occupying entire floors and consuming untold power.

As we have mentioned, computers have completely changed the way we live and work. Today, computers are in almost every office. There are still offices in some parts of the world which still don’t have computers but this is now rare because without computers, work is inefficient and cumbersome. Take for instance calculations. It would take days for companies to do simple calculations not to mention companies that deal with lots of material and inventory. Computers make this work simple and allow businesses to become more efficient on a day to day basis.

Another use of computers is communication. With computers has come the wondrous world of the Internet or what is called in other circles, the World Wide Web or Information Superhighway. As much as computer has changed the way we work, they have also revolutionized the way we communicate. The term “the world is a smaller place” or phrases like “global market place”. This is because the Internet has made communication so easy and seamless that there has people can communicate instantaneously regardless of what part of the globe they are located. The world of email, although it hasn’t completely resulted in the eradication of snail mail, has nevertheless caused a decline in visits to the post office or the purchase of stamps. All this is because people now sit behind a computer and email back and forth. To go even further, specialized Internet software run by many major companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Google has made it possible to chat in real time with someone on the other side of the globe. Video conferencing has also been made possible. This has completely changed the way we conduct meetings. Businesses can now even open branches in other countries faster because the top level management can communicate with lower management via video conferencing. People can actually see each other regardless of where they are located and all this is courtesy of the advent of computers and the Internet. Computers have evolved a lot since and are now in almost half of all US households and most offices in the rest of the world.

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