The technology profiled on the online exhibit, “Revolution: the first 2000 years in computing,” that is most revolutionary was the “Birth of the Computer.” To clarify, when I say the word revolutionary, I mean that the results of something leads to a major change. The birth of computers is tied with both the short term changes it caused for their first original purpose during World War II, and the unintended long term after effects the original computers have created through continued advancement up to today.
Before we had computers, there were people called calculation workers, who worked to deal with the alarming amount of repetitive calculations that needed to be done. This was slow and tedious due to the use of punch cards and calculators being the primary ways of handling these calculations, so people were already searching for a better way to do these calculations. The answer to this problem came in the form of the ENIAC, which was the first completely electronic computer, using no mechanical parts, making it do calculations much faster.
After the creation of the ENIAC, other computers were also created for different purposes other than just general basic calculation. With the need for a computer which could be used to break codes that the Nazis were sending to each other, the “Colossus” was created. The Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine, also known as “Baby,” was used to test the ability to execute a program from memory, which created the birth of software. Passed even these three computers, there were still more computers created, each striving to reach their own.
All three of the previously mentioned computers are milestones of the birth of computers, which could be considered revolutionary with how much they change the things around them. The ENIAC was the very first completely digital computer ever made, which is now today’s standard. The “Colossus” was the first electronic means of encryption and decryption, and it helped to end World War II and begin the age of computing. The Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine created the first way to store programs to execute them later, which would eventually become the birth of software. Overall, it is all thanks to revolution created by the earliest computers, like the previously mentioned three, that we have the advanced computers we do today.
Justin Molenda 
I am slightly perplexed at this moment. I don’t whether your revolutionary piece of technology was the calculator of the ENIAC. Either way however, I feel that they were both quite revolutionary. I feel that the calculator, the first version being the abacus invented in europe, changed the way people functioned around Europe during that time period, everybody that knew how to use one would use it while shopping and merchants would use it while selling. Truly changing the way aspects of the world, mainly the aspect dealing with the economic system. The other revolutionary device in question is the ENIAC. According to google, “ENIAC was amongst the earliest electronic general-purpose computers made. It was Turing-complete, digital and able to solve ‘a large class of numerical problems’ through reprogramming.” This shows that the ENIAC paved the way for other technologies in the future and how it revolutionized calculating. Also, calculation works were in the movie ‘HIDDEN FIGURES’, along with one of the earliest computers every. The computer was so old that it took an entire room. Other than that, I just wonder if you thought that the ENIAC or the Calculator was more influential?
LikeLiked by 1 person
As a way to clarify, my post was generally about the “Birth of Computers,” with the ENIAC being the biggest one I focused on. When I was talking about the calculator, I was addressing how there was a need for something better, and something that could do calculations faster. Like you had said, the ENIAC was a general-purpose computer, used to digitally solve ‘a large class of problems’ by reprogramming the computer. I talked about how it was used for calculations, as there was no such thing as a monitor to display anything to yet, so the computer could only be used for calculations. I like how you bring up the abacus and how it influenced Europe, as well as how my topic relates to a movie. Between the ENIAC and the calculator, I feel the ENIAC is more influential, as the ENIAC is a fast and digitized calculator, which paved the way for computer science.
LikeLike
Wonderful focus on the ENIAC! I thought that it was quite interesting you should bring this piece of technology up. It was incredibly beneficial allowing for over 5,000 addition calculations per second, 385 multiplication calculations per second, and 3 square root calculations per second. This revolutionized calculation workers in that it almost entirely mitigated any reason for them to be. Nowadays, though these numbers seem to be weak compared to the high-end consumer CPU with several billion transistors, clock speeds potentially over 5 gigahertz, and calculation speeds of over 100 trillion calculations per second, this was definitely revolutionary. Also, considering that an equivalent supercomputer nowadays could potentially cost less and yield calculation speeds of over 120 petaflops or 120 quadrillion calculations per second, we have come a huge way in terms of the digital revolution.
LikeLike