ShmoopTube

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At this point in the course, we've talked about almost every technology that has contributed

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to the modern world as we know it.

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Don't worry, we won't toot our own horns… [Saxophone playing]

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…we have self-tooting ones for that now.

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Seriously, we’ve been thorough.

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We've covered cars, airplanes, fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, nuclear weapons, telegraphs, [Pictures of cars, airplanes etc... in a tornado]

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telephones, televisions, and modern medicine.

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We've even covered microwaves, which made us crave massive amounts of popcorn. [Popcorn flies out of a microwave]

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But there's one technology that defines our modern lives, perhaps more than all the others combined. [Mac computer starts up]

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It's the reason we call this the Information Age, and the reason people watch about 500 [Cat video playing from YouTube]

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years of YouTube videos on Facebook every day.

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We’re not even exaggerated that math.

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Seriously 500 years worth of hours are watched every day, and that number is only growing

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bigger and bigger.

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We're talking, of course, about computers. [Person using a MacBook]

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Y'know…those little machines that let us do everything from typing up our homework

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to watching GIFS of disgustingly cute dogs to watching Shmoop videos about computers. [Loop of a dog on a computer]

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Whoa.

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Computerception there huh?

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But computers haven't always been the all-consuming must-have technology of their time. [A sledge hammer hits a computer monitor]

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In their early history, computers were just giant, slow calculators, used only by governments [Calculator with legs]

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and very patient researchers.

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In 1946, the head of IBM predicted that the world would probably need about six computers [6 computers appear on the world]

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Lucky for IBM that that didn’t prove to be the case.

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For the record, at least 2 billion computers have been sold. [IBM stock chart goes up]

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In this lesson, we're going to figure out how we went from computers the size of houses [Picture of an old computer]

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to computers the size of our hand. [Someone holding a smartphone]

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And then, perhaps even more importantly, we'll find out why computers have become the defining

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technology of the twenty-first century.

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Y'know. [Computer crying]

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As of now.

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Still waiting on those hoverboards…

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Most inventions are the product of lots of people working on different ideas over a long [Pictures of people working in labs]

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period of time…

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But nobody could ever simplify computer history enough to give the credit to one person… [People appearing and holding on to one trophy]

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Or even ten people.

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Computers have a century-long history, and involve hundreds of researchers, engineers,

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and mathematicians working independently.

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It's even difficult to define what a computer is. [Kid scratching his head]

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Seriously, go ahead and try it.

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A computer is…

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Um…a machine…full of cat videos?

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And…celebrity tweets…?

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Yeah it's hard right?

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In the beginning of the nineteenth century…computers….were just people who worked computing numbers. [Man working in front of a computer]

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Yup, anybody who did math all day was technically a computer.

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Charles Babbage's "difference engine" was a calculator that could perform polynomial [Babbage stood next to his machine]

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math, which sounds very impressive.

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Alan Turing's machine was a device that printed symbols on paper according to the directions

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it was given.

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These days, we expect a computer to have a central processing unit, plenty of memory, [Man sat at a desk and the different components of a computer appear]

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and the ability to stream whatever we want, whenever we want it…or else. [Man holds a gun to the computer]

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For the purposes of this lesson, we're going to call all of that a computer….

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A programmable, usually electronic device that can store, retrieve, and process data.

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We’re also going to call it our friend because it will let us binge watch Parks and Recreation [Thought bubble appears above a man saying that he loves his computer]

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after we’re done making this video without complaining.

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And that's what real friends do.

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