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Author: David Alan Grier Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 1400849365 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 423
Book Description
Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration. When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.
Author: David Alan Grier Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 1400849365 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 423
Book Description
Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration. When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.
Author: Gojko Adzic Publisher: ISBN: 9780993088148 Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Humans vs Computers is a book about ordinary people caught between wrong assumptions and computer bugs. You'll read about humans who are invisible to computers, how a default password caused a zombie apocalypse and why airlines sometimes give away free tickets. This is also a book on how to prevent, avoid and reduce the impact of such problems.
Author: Joy Lisi Rankin Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674970977 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 337
Book Description
Does Silicon Valley deserve all the credit for digital creativity and social media? Joy Rankin questions this triumphalism by revisiting a pre-PC time when schools were not the last stop for mature consumer technologies but flourishing sites of innovative collaboration—when users taught computers and visionaries dreamed of networked access for all.
Author: Sue Bradford Edwards Publisher: ABDO ISBN: 1680797409 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 115
Book Description
Hidden Human Computers discusses how in the 1950s, black women made critical contributions to NASA by performing calculations that made it possible for the nation's astronauts to fly into space and return safely to Earth. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Author: Thomas K. Landauer Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 9780262621083 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 444
Book Description
Beginning with an explanation of why considerable outlays for computing since 1973 have not resulted in comparable payoffs, the author proposes that emerging techniques for user-centred development can turn the situation around - through task analysis, ite
Author: Chris Ewin Publisher: No Starch Press ISBN: 159327792X Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 361
Book Description
My Kids Just Gave Me a Computer, What Do I Do Now? Computers for Seniors is a step-by-step, full-color guide that will take you all the way from pressing the "On" button on your new computer to being a confident user who can send email to family and friends, shop online safely, read the latest news, watch funny YouTube videos, share cute pictures of your grandkids, check the weather forecast, and much more. You’ll learn to: -Plug in, set up, and turn on your computer -Print and share photos of your grandkids, vacations, pets, friends, and special life events -Install helpful tools like a calendar, money manager, and weather tracker -Search the internet for news, recipes, gardening tips, sports updates, and anything else that interests you -Watch entertaining YouTube videos or educational lectures and make video calls to anywhere in the world -Find and listen to new music (or your favorite classics) and read electronic books -Email your friends and family -Stay safe online and keep your private information secure Computers for Seniors will show you how to get what you really want from your PC, with the help of full-color illustrations, friendly instructions, and a touch of humor. Each lesson has small exercises to test your skills and help you practice, to make sure you feel comfortable with what you’ve learned before you move on. It’s never too late to have fun and get more out of your PC—Computers for Seniors will ease you into the computer generation by guiding you every step of the way.
Author: Erik J. Larson Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674983513 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 321
Book Description
“Artificial intelligence has always inspired outlandish visions—that AI is going to destroy us, save us, or at the very least radically transform us. Erik Larson exposes the vast gap between the actual science underlying AI and the dramatic claims being made for it. This is a timely, important, and even essential book.” —John Horgan, author of The End of Science Many futurists insist that AI will soon achieve human levels of intelligence. From there, it will quickly eclipse the most gifted human mind. The Myth of Artificial Intelligence argues that such claims are just that: myths. We are not on the path to developing truly intelligent machines. We don’t even know where that path might be. Erik Larson charts a journey through the landscape of AI, from Alan Turing’s early work to today’s dominant models of machine learning. Since the beginning, AI researchers and enthusiasts have equated the reasoning approaches of AI with those of human intelligence. But this is a profound mistake. Even cutting-edge AI looks nothing like human intelligence. Modern AI is based on inductive reasoning: computers make statistical correlations to determine which answer is likely to be right, allowing software to, say, detect a particular face in an image. But human reasoning is entirely different. Humans do not correlate data sets; we make conjectures sensitive to context—the best guess, given our observations and what we already know about the world. We haven’t a clue how to program this kind of reasoning, known as abduction. Yet it is the heart of common sense. Larson argues that all this AI hype is bad science and bad for science. A culture of invention thrives on exploring unknowns, not overselling existing methods. Inductive AI will continue to improve at narrow tasks, but if we are to make real progress, we must abandon futuristic talk and learn to better appreciate the only true intelligence we know—our own.
Author: Elaine Weiss Publisher: Pfeiffer ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 330
Book Description
Weiss illustrates how to facilitate good performance by correcting problems facing computer users: moving around the system; getting good explanations about how things work; and communicating with the system. Anyone who is responsible for the performance of computer users will learn to improve human performance by improving interactions between people and computers. Sample computer screens.
Author: Byron Reeves Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications ISBN: 9781575860527 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 317
Book Description
According to popular wisdom, humans never relate to a computer or a television program in the same way they relate to another human being. Or do they? The psychological and sociological complexities of the relationship could be greater than you think. In an extraordinary revision of received wisdom, Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass demonstrate convincingly in The Media Equation that interactions with computers, television, and new communication technologies are identical to real social relationships and to the navigation of real physical spaces. Using everyday language, the authors explain their novel ideas in a way that will engage general readers with an interest in cutting-edge research at the intersection of psychology, communication and computer technology. The result is an accessible summary of exciting ideas for modern times. As Bill Gates says, '(they) ... have shown us some amazing things'.
Author: David Alan Grier
Author: David Alan Grier
Author: Gojko Adzic
Author: Joy Lisi Rankin
Author: Sue Bradford Edwards
Author: Thomas K. Landauer
Author: Chris Ewin
Author: Erik J. Larson
Author: Simon Hugh Lavington
Author: Elaine Weiss
Author: Byron Reeves