In this new era emphasis has shifted from the physical and mechanical labour required by the Industrial Revolution to the mental labour needed to sustain the new information Revolution. The invention of computers in the 1940s has altered our history, our style of living and functioning. Just as gears, gas engines, and electric motors extend our physical power, so do computers today give us the information we need to extend our thinking power.
The work on computers probably begun by Charles Babbage in the 1830 s was continued by Zady Ada, Herman Hellerith, Alan Turing and Howard Aiken, each contributing to the final development of computers in the 1940s. Mark 1 produced by Howard Aiken in 1943 is believed to be the first computer of the world. In 1946, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was produced by Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly of the University of Pennsylvania.
The ENIAC takes the honour of being the first true electronic computer as it was built with vacuum tubes. The first personal computer or PC was produced by Edward Roberts with the help of William Yates and Tim Bybee in the 1970s. It was named ‘Altair’. In the last two decades great leaps were made in the field of computers by several international companies such as, IBM, Apple, Intel, Howlatt Packard and Microsoft.
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Computer is a small machine which can do numerous works such as reasoning, figuring, drawing, writing, data- processing, calculations, printing, etc., by following a set of instructions stored up in its memory with the help of a micro chip. With the help of CPU(central processing unit) it processes the given instructions and acts according to the given instructions.
Today we are living in a computer age. Every activity of man is practically controlled by computers. Railway stations, airports, factories, oil installations, power stations, banks, major government offices, defence establishments, National T.V. network programmes, telecommunications, etc., are computer controlled. The greatest benefit is that, it has profoundly reduced man’s mental work, physical labour and freed him from the fear of error. Few strokes on the computer keyboard sets in motion hundreds of machines. The impact of computers in defence, space exploration, health-care, education, industries, banking, commerce, etc., has been tremendous.
Educational benefits from computers are immense. Educators agree that the home PC can be a powerful motivating and learning tool. Thousands of educational programmes are available in such categories as reading, languages, science, mathematics, social studies, and art and music. Perhaps the greatest boon of computers has been in the field of communications. The arrival of computers has totally revolutionised our communication systems. All transport systems such as, rail or air has been computerised.
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Today, we are able to get any information that we want at the stroke of a computer key. Computer opens us to the world of ‘Information Superhighway’. With the help of computer and internet we are able to chat with people sitting thousands of miles away, visit distant sites, attend conference, read the days’ newspapers, watch the latest movies, witness live international matches, etc.
Web sites, net surfing, E- mail, E-Commerce, etc., have become the fashion of the day. Without computer none of these are possible. Computers have thus, brought the world closer turning it into a global village.
The dependence of man on computers is ever increasing. However over-dependence on computers might ruin man’s innate abilities and personal values. Besides, if it is misused it can ruin and destroy our telecommunication system, defence, space programmes and economic establishments. It is a great machine with great deal of potential. It all depends on how we use it.