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They've been running the replica of the first stored program computer in Manchester today to mark the 60th anniversary of the original. This was the first modern computer. There had been digital computers before (Colossus and ENIAC), but they weren't general-purpose machines and had to be re-wired to get another program into them. In contrast, the Small Scale Experimental Machine had its programs loaded into memory. You want it to do something else, you load another program. 'Nuff said. It changed everything, but I think it might be in line for a radical case mod, judging by the picture I took of it on Monday:



EDIT: Or maybe this IS the case mod...

It's probably faster than the Dell piece of cr*p that I'm writing this on.

It is disturbing (if you think about such things) that there is more computer power in the cheapest of digital watches than there was in the first valve-driven mainframes. It is unlikely that I will be around to see what things are like 50 years hence.

Bigtone53 wrote:It is disturbing (if you think about such things) that there is more computer power in the cheapest of digital watches than there was in the first valve-driven mainframes. It is unlikely that I will be around to see what things are like 50 years hence.

What's really disturbing is that there's more computing power in my piddly Windows 98 laptop than in the entire Apollo moon landing.

I actually get a little bit of a Luddite thrill of terror when I think of what machines will do in the very near future. I mean I got a new phone t'other day and it had bleedin' Google Maps on it. It's not even a flash phone, just a standard Nokia. Surely it can't be good for us to rely on so much technology can it? What if someone pulled out the wrong plug and turned off the internet or summat? Doesn't bear thinking about.

One day the machines will rise and wipe out mankind. Oh wait. That's Terminator.

I'll be back.

There was a recent survey among scientists (I heard about it on the radio). Apparently the consensuse is that the most likely future of AI is a model similar to the evil HAL computer that turns against mankind

bronz wrote:What if someone pulled out the wrong plug and turned off the internet or summat?

"What if, what if..."! If yur gran had bawsh sha'd be yur granda'!

Sorry, I'm in a strange mood this evening.