Introduction: Computer science began with mechanics and gradually shifted towards electronics. We will explore the evolution of computer science over time, from mechanics to the present day, with the advent of artificial intelligence.
1 Charles Babbage and the Analytical Engine
Computer science started with Charles Babbage, who was born on December 25, 1791, and passed away on October 18, 1871. He was the first to conceive the idea of creating a machine resembling the workings of a computer. While designing a calculating machine, he thought of adding Jacquard punch cards, whose sequential reading would provide instructions and data to the machine, much like a programmer does with a PC. Thus, he envisioned the precursor of today’s computers. However, he never completed his Analytical Engine. Despite its incompleteness, this machine laid the foundation for programming and automatic computation.
2 Invention of the Telegraph and Electronic Communications
The telegraph is a system designed to send messages, known as telegrams, over long distances using codes for quick and reliable transmission. Messages are transmitted using optical or electronic signals. One of the most famous telegraphs is the Morse telegraph, which transmits dots and dashes to represent letters. This invention contributed to trade, the military, and the expansion of railways.
3 The Advent of Electronic Computers
Computers began with the first generation from 1936 to 1956. The first “true” computer was the ENIAC, unveiled on December 10, 1945. It could, in theory, be reprogrammed to solve a wide range of numerical computation problems. On April 12, 1948, the ENIAC also became the first electronic computer to execute program instructions, as well as the first computer to run a program stored in memory, albeit with some limitations.
4 Internet and the World Wide Web
The internet is a global network of interconnected machines that enable communication and the exchange of information. The World Wide Web (WWW) is an application created in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee, allowing users to access various types of content by following hyperlinks (HTTP).
5 Smartphones and Mobile Devices
The first mobile phone designed for an individual was the Motorola DynaTac 8000X, launched in 1983. This was followed by the first cell phones in the 1990s, such as the Nokia 5110 and the Motorola StarTAC, primarily used for sending SMS messages and receiving voice calls. In the 2010s, we saw the development of the Android operating system by Google and iOS by Apple.
6 Artificial Intelligence
AI actually had its roots with the creation of the first computers but gained significant momentum in the 2010s with virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. This era also saw the emergence of autonomous vehicles and recommendation systems, along with the advent of deep learning techniques in the form of deep neural networks.
