4 ms·
They said "When you grow up, you won't always have an abacus in your pocket!" And yet here we are.
by ypeterholmes 5y ago
They said "When you grow up, you won't always have an abacus in your pocket!" And yet here we are.
- retrac 5y agoAnd if anyone saw that coming it was Feynman. This isn't quite prophetic for 1959 but it's close: > I don't know how to do this on a small scale in a practical way, but I do know that computing machines are very large; they fill rooms. Why can't we make them very small, make them of little wires, little elements – and by little, I mean little. For instance, the wires should be 10 or 100 atoms in diameter, and the circuits should be a few thousand angstroms across.
- mrtnmcc 5y agoQuite a coincidence... Robert Noyce invented the first monolithic integrated circuit chip at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959.
- MaxBarraclough 5y agoThe you won't always have a calculator justification was always a poor one, even ignoring that we all carry computers these days. You don't study mathematics just to improve your mental arithmetic. If mental arithmetic were the point, you'd just practice mental arithmetic for your whole mathematical education, rather than progressing to more advanced topics.