Long before Bill Gates began to sell Windows and even longer before Google became the king of the internet, there were people laying the ground work for the computers we have today. Did you know that computers have actually been in existence since the mid 1930’s however these early computers looked and acted nothing like the machines we use today. How did we get from there to now? With the help of a few key scientists and mathematicians who concentrated on the ideas of computing and improving the computers we had.

George Boole is consider by many to be the father of computer science. While his work fell out of fashion after his death in 1864, today the ideas that Boole developed are considered very relevant. George Boole is the creator of Boolean Algebra which is the basis of how all digital computers work. Boole was born in England in 1815, he became a teacher during his teen years and at 20 years old he opened his own school. At 34, Boole moved to Ireland and became the first professor of mathematics at Queen’s College where he remained until his death. Boole concentrated on mathematical research that linked the ideas of logic to algebra instead of philosophy. Boole’s greatest achievement was his use of algerbra to express logical propositions. Boole was considered to be ahead of his time, he wrote many essays in the mid 19th century expresssing his understanding of logic and the relationship to mathematics. You probably know a few Boolean words yourself because we still use his algebra when using internet search engines.

Konrad Zuse was a construction engineer during WWII where he earned the unofficial title of “inventor of the modern computer.” One of the most difficult tasks of doing a large calculation on a slide rule or adding machine is keeping track of the intermediate results and correctly replacing these results later in the process. Zuse wanted to create a process to complete these large calculations easily and he realized that an automatic calculator would do the trick as long as it had a control, memory, and the calculating processor. In 1936, Zuse made the first binary computer called the Z1 unfortunatley this computer was destroyed during World War II but Zuse continued to work on his binary computers creating the Z2, Z3, and Z4 through the 1940s.

John Von Neumann was considered a child prodigy when he was born in Hungry in 1903 and was another mathematician and scientist who has been credited as fundamental to the creation of the computer we use today. Before Von Neumann, most mathematicians used computers to create tables of data that were then applied to abstract mathematical ideas. Von Neumann was interested in applying the processing power of computer to specific mathematical problems instead of creating these abstract ideas. Von Neumann focused on developing the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) computer which was to be the first computer that could store and recall programs. Later in life Von Neumann worked for the IBM company and was responsible for accepting new computer ideas into their research and development program. Von Neumann became one of the most influential people in the computing field as any new ideas for development that were taken to IBM had to pass his approval.

Alan Turing, born 1912 in London studied mathematics at Cambridge University and was greately influenced by the early publications of Von Neumann. Turing worked during World War II on deciphering German code cyphers and is credited as instrumental in cracking the German secret codes. Turing is also credited for designing what many believe to be the first electronic computer. Turing designed the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) but this machine was never built. Had the ACE been completed it would have been faster and had more memory than any computer created before it. Turing understood the concept that Von Neumann exponded upon with a computers need to store and recall programs. In 1950, Turin invented the Turing Test which is a philiosophical and logical test designed to test for intelligence in computers.

As we progress through the history with computers there is often great controversy about who to credit for specific findings and discoverys. Many scientists worked together to publish papers and create working models of their theories and in some cases this has caused great debate on who to credit for a theory or discovery. While one person may believe that the EDVAC computer bares no resembelance to the computers we use today, there is someone else who directly sites EDVAC as the grandfather of the computers we use today. In general, we need to be aware how the ideas of one person have been built upon by the scientists of the next generation. You may have your favorite historical person fundmental to the creation of the computer and the truth is that without all of the great minds associated with computing we would not have anything at all.

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When computers first came into existence during the 20th century, the computers took up entire rooms and were only able to perform simple mathematical formulas. In addition, these computers had to be rewired and reprogrammed every time the operators needed to change or update a function. Today’s technology advances are allowing computers to become more powerful and much smaller every year. Think about it, how big was your first computer and what is the size of the computer your using now? Chances are the computer you have now is much smaller and more powerful than your first computer. If we continue on this path towards small powerful computers, what will our computers look like in ten years?

Imagine your next computer being based upon a glass of water. While today you need to avoid getting water anywhere near your computer and electronics in general, researchers have already demonstrated that water is able to create an ultra-dense storage system that computers and other electronic devices can use. Researchers have developed a method to use small amounts of water to stabilize the memory bits of nanowire that is barely three-billionths of a meter wide. As this technology progresses we may find that water will increase the memory and storage capacity of our computers and allows us to use new and different materials in our computers and technology.

Maybe, your next computer will not be based on a glass of water but what is living in the water. A computer built from E. Coli bacteria has already successfully started to solve mathematical puzzles. The bacteria computer actually completed a mathematical problem faster than a standard computer based upon the silicon CPU chip. Bacteria computing is based upon the idea of DNA computing and can actually process the same data we use our computers for today. Each strand of DNA is able to process bits of data independently while still creating a useable whole. Ok, it may not be appealing to have a dish of bacteria sitting on your desk but DNA computing is one technological advancement that researchers are working on daily and we will see the technology learnings applied to our computers in the future.

If bacteria is not your idea of a perfect computer, why not consider a magnetic trap that holds quantum qubits. Qubits are very similar to the bits we currently use to represent data in our computers. In our computers today, the bits store data as either a 0 or 1 which is considered very linear (there is only two choices and no in-between). When using qubits, we can represent data as 0, 1, or both 0 and 1 at the same time, instead of data being very linear qubits allow our data to become 3-dimensional. When one qubit interacts with another qubit, we create a quantum qubit computing platform that is the basis for 3-dimensional computing. Once we start to use quantum qubits in our computers we will not need to represent 3D images on our computer screen because they will be created around us in the magnetic trap process the qubits.

If your a person on the go, you probably own at least one portable laptop computer. Ten years from now, your entire portable computing process may change as well. Instead of carrying a heavy computer, it would be much nicer to have a piece of expensive jewelry instead? Diamonds actually make much faster computer chips than the current silicone we use, however since natural diamonds are very expensive we continue to use silcone. Currently advances in technology and our knowledge of geological processes has opened up the ability to create diamonds in a lab. Man-made diamonds are virtually identical to diamonds made by the earth. Since we no longer need to wait for the earth to produce the diamonds we need for our computers all we need is for the price of man-made diamonds to become affordable. Then CPU manufacturers will begin to create computer chips that are much faster than the computers we have now and and we can begin to move toward jewelry as a computer.

Finally, our computers may become a pile of photosensitive molecules. Molecular computing focuses on similar ideas to DNA computing and creates a process where the computational power of individual molecules is harnessed to create faster processing. Photosensitive molecules can use the energy of light to fuel the computing power of the molecules. Researchers believe that molecules and molecular computing will create faster computer that are more cost efficient, save energy, and are smaller in size.

Whatever our computers look like in ten years, one thing is for certain, we will be using smaller computers with more power. Researchers may be pushing computing processes to the extreme but every day new advances in DNA and molecular computing are pushing the envelope and creating faster computers based upon materials that surround us in life.

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