How computers began to slowly replace humans | David Alan Grier: Full Interview

Quick Overview

Computers began replacing humans by systematizing production and calculation, tracing roots back to the Industrial Revolution's focus on uniform quality and lowest cost, exemplified by early astronomical data reduction, Charles Babbage's attempts to mechanize calculation, and the standardization efforts driven by figures like Herbert Hoover and the need for accurate nautical almanacs and census data processing.

Key Points: The Industrial Revolution, starting around 1776, focused on systematizing production to create uniform goods at the lowest cost, a concept influencing early computational needs like those in astronomy. Early data reduction, such as mapping the heavens, required large groups of people to perform repetitive arithmetic, highlighting the initial need for cost-effective, systematic work that laid the groundwork for computing. Charles Babbage, fascinated by mechanizing mathematics, discovered that fitting curves to data, crucial for both astronomy and insurance tables, could be reduced to additions and subtractions, leading him to design a steam-powered calculating machine. The development of standardized timekeeping via accurate clocks was essential for industrial processes like scheduling factory work and managing railroad logistics, making systematic calculation a necessity. Standardization efforts, significantly advanced by Herbert Hoover around World War I, focused on creating uniform parts and methods to reduce costs and transfer knowledge to less-trained individuals, which directly benefited the scaling of computation. The ENIAC machine at the University of Pennsylvania, developed for WWII anti-aircraft calculations, directly preceded the modern computer architecture defined by John Von Neumann: memory, a processing unit, and a program decoder. The census crisis of the late 19th century, where the 1880 census was never fully completed, spurred the creation of the Hollerith Tabulating Company (later IBM) to industrialize data processing using punched cards.