Discuss the impact of TWO of the following figures on the development of digital technologies and digital culture: Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, William Gibson, Kevin Mitnick, Alan Turing, Ray Kurzweil, J.C.R. Licklider, Douglas Engelbart
and the two subjects I chose were Charles Babbage
and Alan Turing.
We live in a world absolutely dominated by digital technologies that without which we would not be able to function. In fact it is extremely difficult to imagine a world without mobile phones, computers and the like. Computers in particular have gone from almost an impossible dream to an ordinary household object for even a lower-middle class family. In fact nowadays we use computers for almost everything including warfare, business and even recreation, things have definitely gone beyond even the dreams of the men who first conceived the idea in the first place. The birth of the idea computer can be traced back as far as the earliest calculatingtechnologies
but the idea for the modern computer we know today can be attributed to a number of great men but the two that this essay will be focusing on in particular are Charles Babbage http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Babbage.html accessed 22nd October) and Alan Turing. (http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/ accessed 22nd October)
Charles Babbage himself is known as ‘The Father of The Computer’ (picture) and is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer while Alan Turing (picture) helped to formulize the algorithm and computation with his ‘Turing machine’ and he was also highly influential in all aspects of computer science. Each man definitely played a vital role in creating one of the most important digital technologies we use today.
Computers have definitely come a long way from their original designs, in fact even the original designers and idealists would never have imagined just how far their ideas could be taken. You only have to look at how important the computers are in our lives to see that both Charles Babbage and Alan Turing have both had a profound effect on our society and the modern digital culture. With both the analytical engine (http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/AccessedAccessed 22nd October)
and the Turing machine(Copland, Proudfoot, 1999 pg 99)
we see the early beginnings of the original computers that we know and use today.Charles Babbage was born in England in the city of London on December 26 1791, and was lucky enough to be born into a privileged family in which his father prioritised his education. (http://www.charlesbabbage.net/, accessed 22nd October 2010) It was in 1812 while studying at Cambridge university that Babbage was focusing on the idea of creating a way to automatically calculate math tables so that the flaws of a human being manually calculating them could be reconciled. This led the beginning of his work on one of the earliest prototypes of the ‘difference engine’ (picture) in 1822 which would take him 12 years to work on and while he didn’t complete it he laid the foundations for others. The difference engine was essentially one of the earliest forms of an automated calculator, though it could only perform ‘polynomial calculations’ which though quite basic by today’s standards was positively revolutionary back then.(http://www.charlesbabbage.net/, accessed 22nd October 2010). In 1839 Babbage would resign from his role as a professor at Cambridge university so that he could devote his full attention to his most visionary invention ‘the analytical engine’. (http://www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/ Accessed 22nd October ) The analytical engine has many of the basic functions of a computer and the idea was conceived in the 19th century, and while Babbage would not build the machine he would draw up the plans for the completely automatic calculator which was able to perform many equations. (Wilkes M, 200 pp 4-5)
Roughly forty years after the death of Babbage in 1871 another man was born. That man was Alan Turing and while most of Babbage’s contribution to modern digital technology was theorised Turing’s was more practical as he designed programs for computers and came up with many concepts and ideas for the artificial intelligences. One such concept was the Turing test in which he designed a set of rules which would be used to classify what constitutes an artificial intelligence. Turing was even able to create an artificial intelligence capable of playing chess that was unfortunately too advanced to be tested properly on the computers that were available but the design was still very advanced in its day. (Epstein, Roberts, Beber, 2009 pp 23-65) (Copland, Proudfoot, 1999 pg 99) Turing was also responsible for creating the ‘Turing Machine’ which at the most basic level had all the functions of a modern day computer as you could input instructions and it will process a constantly looping piece of tape accordingly (Weintraub, http://www.ams.org/samplings/feature-column/fcarc-turing accessed 22nd October 2010). Thanks to Turing efforts we saw the basis of many of the ideas of the artificial intelligence that is quite common today as well as a machine that was capable of producing computer like functions. Turing died under very unfortunate circumstances in 1954 at only 42 which is truly a shame as he could have accomplished so much more. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/turing_alan.shtml
It is quite easy to take for granted things which we have readily available to us today without thinking that when men like Babbage and Turing were working with them they were starting from near scratch and still they both were able to design concepts and machines capable of automatic functions such as computers. Babbage’s work and Turing’s both have that one important detail in common they were trying to create works capable of performing designated tasks automatically which in modern times is how almost all electronics work and without men like these almost everything in the digital age would not exist or would at least be far more difficult to use so it is clear to see that both had a massive impact on modern digital technology.
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