"My son, a hundred years ago, all computers were human."
"Really? Did the evil Billius Gatemus steal their souls and turn them into empty shells of metal and bits of sand?"
"Heh. No, these were people who were very good at math. 'Computer' was their job title."
"Human computers? You mean those idiot savants who can recite the value of, say, π, from memory?"
Neither idiot nor savant. Being different doesn't make people either less or more. Just different. But, no, that's not what I'm talking about. Not exactly.
Astronomy, for example, often involves doing repetitive, often complicated calculations on large sets of numbers. So does geological survey work. Designing artillery so it can be accurately aimed takes a lot of calculation, as does nuclear physics. Before we had electronic computers, people had to do that work.
If a single person would take a year, working on the set eight or twelve hours a day, two people of similar ability could cooperate to cut the time to six months . Add a third and cut the time to four.
Or, you might have a theorist who is good at seeing the broad picture, but tends to make mistakes after the third or fourth hour straight, and a co-worker who has no problems doing math hours on end. The co-worker could check the theorist's work, or even take over when nothing is left but grinding out numbers.
(Okay, sometimes people who have no problems doing math for hours on end are a little unskilled at things that other people think of as "normal" human behavior. Where do you think the much despised caste systems came from? Let's give a wider definition to "normal", instead.)
In some cases, the task was called computing, but there are also cases of people being employed under the job title, "computer". Radhanath Sikdar is one well-known example, Henrietta Swan Leavitt another. The six original programmers of the ENIAC were recruited from the ranks of computers.
Does this fit into the definition I've given of computers?
Input: math problems
Output: solutions
Processor: human mind
Memory: paper
Program: solution algorithms that they follow
Yeah, I think it does.
Okay, now let's talk about modern computers.
Copyright 2011 Joel Matthew Rees