Unit Two: Computer Hardware (9/13) Reading Notes

The iPhone and the BlackBerry, two highly evolved computers.

Personal computing is ubiquitous in contemporary American society.  Although many members of society have essentially grown up in an age of ubiquitous computing, it was not so long ago that computers were not an integral aspect of everyday life.  The Computer History Museum offers a fascinating photo history of computers that reflects upon the magnitude of progress achieved by computer scientists throughout the past several decades.  The “Kitchen Computer” provides interesting insight regarding the social changes that have occurred along with the computing revolution, and the evolution of the ways in which computers are marketed.

                Information pertaining to modern computer science and the multitude of aspects of computer hardware is relatively easily accessible in American society.  Wikipedia provides a vast web of pages describing personal computer hardware and the functions of various parts, as well as far more advanced topics such as computer architecture paradigms and artificial intelligence.  The entry for “personal computer hardware” provides plain language explanations of the relationships between central hardware components, and therefore is very useful for consumers with limited knowledge of the physical structures that form a modern personal computer.  The accessibility of such information is rather remarkable in comparison with the opaqueness that tends to be associated with other modern technologies, such as automobiles.  Whereas consumers can find clear, concise, well organized, readable information regarding personal computers, consumers without knowledge of automobiles tend to be at the mercy of mechanics and other automotive professionals that seem to possess knowledge that is inaccessible and incomprehensible to the average citizen.  The availability of information regarding personal computers is a reflection of the “age of information” that progress in computer science has enabled.

                The rapid pace at which computing power evolves causes the “history” of computer hardware to unfold virtually in real time.  The exponential rate at which the capacity of an integrated circuit increases is often referred to as Moore’s Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the exponential increase of the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit, and the potential for the exponential increase in computing power that results.  Moore’s Law is apparent in various aspects of digital technology, and has formed the basis for numerous predictions regarding the future of computer hardware as well as the resulting relationship between humanity and computers.  In a state of technological singularity, in which progress in computing power occurs almost instantly as a result of exponential gains in technological capacity, computers will, arguably, possess the capacity to evolve independent of human input.  This idea has formed the basis for various modern depictions of a future in which machines possess autonomy and decision making power similar to that possessed by human beings; however, the ubiquitousness of computers in American society should lead to the question of whether such an era has already arrived.