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Pouring in money advances computation. Microprocessors were a direct result of the space race and space weapons systems. No other industry would have justified

Pouring in money advances computation. Microprocessors were a direct result of the space race and space weapons systems. No other industry would have justified the trillions of dollars in investment that was required to fit advanced computers into a small space when mainframe systems did the job just fine. Missiles and spaceships required systems that could calculate trajectories and be small enough to launch into space. Had we not invested that as heavily back then our computers would not be as advanced today. Fusion would be similar.

petra 8y ago
>> when mainframe systems did the job just fine. Didn't people see the value that cheaper/more compute power will give them back than ?
- woah 8y ago
  It was only really used for big expensive projects where the expense of the mainframe computer was a small part of the budget, so no.
- jgust 8y ago
  Not that long ago (1980's?) it was said that no one really needed a personal computer, and that no one would buy one.
  - simonh 8y ago
    I programmed microcomputers in the 70s as a kid.
    - scardine 8y ago
      In the late 70's the rich boy of the neighborhood got a zx-spectrum clone (rich kids toy in Brazil at the time) but I was the only kid of the bunch that thought programming in basic was fun - all of my friends just wanted to load Kung Fu Mater[1] from the tape recorder. Crazy, games were stored into analog audio k7[2] tapes back then. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgO4HtWIJjQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgO4HtWIJjQ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_tape
- btilly 8y ago
  This can be seen as a consequence of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox. It is called a paradox because seeing it in action usually catches people by surprise. And this is true whether you're talking about the consumption of coal to power factories, or the consumption of electricity to power computing (and in each case the myriad of new uses that efficiency promoted). In Science Fiction over and over again the trope was of a giant computer that acted like an oracle. You see that in Asimov's work, in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and so on. Basically nobody anticipated ubiquitous computing. For instance in the Foundation series you see that a computer run by the Second Foundation can predict the future course of history...and people are calculating their courses with slide rules. As for the killer app of computing, email, I'm only aware of one pre-1970 work correctly anticipating what it would be actually like. (James H. Schmitz has a memorable scene in one of his Telzy stories where she catches up on her messages at a terminal. He doesn't say "email", but the scene is notable for unobtrusively getting it right.)
  - kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
    "Desk Set" has a job stealing computer with a conversational UI answering reference questions. Ahead of it's time.
  - hyperpallium 8y ago
    https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power asimov and manned-missiles
    - btilly 8y ago
      Good example. Now compare with Franchise, Jokester, All the Troubles of the World, The Last Question and many more stories that feature as a plot device a very powerful centralized computer named Multivac. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivac for a more complete list.) How the same mind could have come up with the idea of androids with positron brains following the three laws of robotics, and yet missed pocket calculators baffles me.
- danielvf 8y ago
  People saw plenty of value in more compute - what they didn’t see the need for was paying an astromical amount more for the same amount of compute to be miniaturized. For example, in 1964, the ATLAS computer went fully online in Manchester, England. It was the most powerful computer in the world, took up a floor of a university, and the word “supercomputer” was invented to describe it. The requirements for the Apollo Guidance Computer were to make something with those approximate specs, but take up only 24×12.5×6.5 inches (61×32×17 cm), use 55 watts of power and be ready to fly in 1967. It was a crazy, impossible task. I’m convinced the AGC was the biggest computing advance after the move general purpose computers.
- sobrevivendo 8y ago
  People from the future will look back at us and ask: "Didn't people see the value that cheaper/more electric power will give them back than ?"
chasil 8y ago
The Farnsworth fusor was very well within the realm of affordability. Unfortunately, it was not a design that could break even, which destroyed the future of its creator. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor

petra 8y ago

>> when mainframe systems did the job just fine. Didn't people see the value that cheaper/more compute power will give them back than ?

woah 8y ago
It was only really used for big expensive projects where the expense of the mainframe computer was a small part of the budget, so no.
jgust 8y ago
Not that long ago (1980's?) it was said that no one really needed a personal computer, and that no one would buy one.
- simonh 8y ago
  I programmed microcomputers in the 70s as a kid.
  - scardine 8y ago
    In the late 70's the rich boy of the neighborhood got a zx-spectrum clone (rich kids toy in Brazil at the time) but I was the only kid of the bunch that thought programming in basic was fun - all of my friends just wanted to load Kung Fu Mater[1] from the tape recorder. Crazy, games were stored into analog audio k7[2] tapes back then. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgO4HtWIJjQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgO4HtWIJjQ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_tape
btilly 8y ago
This can be seen as a consequence of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox. It is called a paradox because seeing it in action usually catches people by surprise. And this is true whether you're talking about the consumption of coal to power factories, or the consumption of electricity to power computing (and in each case the myriad of new uses that efficiency promoted). In Science Fiction over and over again the trope was of a giant computer that acted like an oracle. You see that in Asimov's work, in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and so on. Basically nobody anticipated ubiquitous computing. For instance in the Foundation series you see that a computer run by the Second Foundation can predict the future course of history...and people are calculating their courses with slide rules. As for the killer app of computing, email, I'm only aware of one pre-1970 work correctly anticipating what it would be actually like. (James H. Schmitz has a memorable scene in one of his Telzy stories where she catches up on her messages at a terminal. He doesn't say "email", but the scene is notable for unobtrusively getting it right.)
- kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
  "Desk Set" has a job stealing computer with a conversational UI answering reference questions. Ahead of it's time.
- hyperpallium 8y ago
  https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power asimov and manned-missiles
  - btilly 8y ago
    Good example. Now compare with Franchise, Jokester, All the Troubles of the World, The Last Question and many more stories that feature as a plot device a very powerful centralized computer named Multivac. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivac for a more complete list.) How the same mind could have come up with the idea of androids with positron brains following the three laws of robotics, and yet missed pocket calculators baffles me.
danielvf 8y ago
People saw plenty of value in more compute - what they didn’t see the need for was paying an astromical amount more for the same amount of compute to be miniaturized. For example, in 1964, the ATLAS computer went fully online in Manchester, England. It was the most powerful computer in the world, took up a floor of a university, and the word “supercomputer” was invented to describe it. The requirements for the Apollo Guidance Computer were to make something with those approximate specs, but take up only 24×12.5×6.5 inches (61×32×17 cm), use 55 watts of power and be ready to fly in 1967. It was a crazy, impossible task. I’m convinced the AGC was the biggest computing advance after the move general purpose computers.
sobrevivendo 8y ago
People from the future will look back at us and ask: "Didn't people see the value that cheaper/more electric power will give them back than ?"

chasil 8y ago

The Farnsworth fusor was very well within the realm of affordability. Unfortunately, it was not a design that could break even, which destroyed the future of its creator. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor