Computers: the Greatest Invention of the Century?

Many people consider the computer to be a once in a lifetime invention. Almost everywhere one goes and looks, there is always a computer. They are found in basically every household in America. It is such a powerful device that it changes the way people run their lives. The question is, are computers all good or are there some downfalls to this incredible gadget? In order to answer this question, it is best for one to know the history, components, careers, and the dark side of computers. There is no simple answer to the question, "Who invented the computer?" Many inventors, through the course of time have contributed to the invention of the computer. It is quite hard to pinpoint the first computer, but most scholars say the abacus was the first "computer." The abacus was the first portable counting mechanism, invented by the Babylonians (Houghton 1). However, this was not quite a computer because it could not be programmed. In the early 1800s, a man named Charles Babbage created a device called the Difference Engine. It was a programmable steam powered calculator. This was a huge step toward the modern-day computer (Swedin and Ferro 19). In 1890, Dr. Herman Hollerith created the first automatic data-processing machine that was used to put information together for the U.S. census. Hollerith's machine became so successful that he created his own business, which eventually became IBM (Houghton 2). Some 50 years later, the U.S. military was in need of an easier way to determine how far their missiles would fire. From this the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) was born. This was the first successful electronic computer. It was an absolutely enormous machine, taking up a whole room (2). For the next 50 years, the computer continued to be improved on and evolved into what is now thought of as the computer. The computers of today are simply amazing compared to what they were in the past. They are sleeker, faster, and more powerful, while being

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