Computers have been around since the late 1930’s, they were being used mostly for engineers to help them with calculations for the inventions they were working on. It’s a piece of technology that is benefiting society because of how it can be used to better what society already has. An example of a piece of technology that benefits society is a calculator, because without one you can still find the answer to a calculation but with a calculator it makes it easier and faster to figure it out. Henry Edward Roberts invented the first personal computer kit in 1975 called The Altair 8800. Once Intel released the 8080 CPU, engineers realized that this processor was powerful enough to build a powerful computer. Roberts was working out of his garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico with the help of a few of his colleagues. Roberts followed the few calculation kits and test equipment that was already out there he created the Altair 8800 which is powerful enough to run many programs that weren’t even out yet. “Today the Altair 8800 is widely recognized as the first spark, that led to the microcomputer revolution of the next few years, because the computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Micro-Soft’s founding product—Altair BASIC” (The Altair 8800 of Ed Roberts). In 1975 Bill Gates was an undergraduate from Harvard University and his friend wanted Henry Edward Roberts to write a program called basic to be able to run on the computer he has built. “This new 40 pin chip with 5,000 transistors, operated at 2-3 MHz, could execute 290,000 operations a second, had 111 instructions and could address 64K bytes of memory. The chip offered a tenfold increase in throughput compared to the 8008” (Allan Part II). The Altair 8800 was powerful and programed to be able to run any application that was to be created. That’s why Bill Gates wanted to be a part with Roberts because this was the first computer that would be able to run “BASIC”. The Altair 8800 is seen as the “first spark” because it was the most powerful computer at the time.
The Altair 8800 is seen as the “first spark” because of how the impacted the world. It is important because it influenced many people to take this piece of technology and use it for its full capacity. Bill Gates had a program called “BASIC” that he wanted to be able to program on the Altair 8800, so he partnered with Henry Edward Roberts. The Altair 880 would now come with the program that Bill Gates had created. “Over the years, the PC has transformed from a hobbyist’s toy to an indispensable tool that continues to change the world. It has revolutionized how we deal with information, how we communicate, and how we work, learn and play” (“Microsoft Fast Facts: 1975.”). With the start of applications being able to run on the Atlair 8800, it ended up changing and making the first personal computer a lot better for personal use. This benefited society because this was only the beginning of personal computers and this influenced others to create more advanced computers in the future. “Radar, computers, and antibiotics have certainly benefited humankind, or at least the wealthier third of the human race. Technologies developed after the war, such as transistors, color television, personal computers, the Internet, and genetically modified crops, are mostly beneficial” (Headrick 147). During the first two World Wars, engineers found it difficult to be figuring out calculations on their own, the use of computers helped with the calculation because they were being programmed to figure out the algorithms of necessities for the wars coming up. Engineers needed something that would be able to give them the correct calculation fast, without having to figure it out on their own. The Altair 8800 didn’t just impact society on how they used it, it would give a push to people to start companies like Apple to make something more useful. “Speaking to NPR (National Public Radio) in 2006, Woz explained that “When I built this Apple I… the first computer to say a computer should look like a typewriter – it should have a keyboard – and the output device is a TV set, it wasn’t really to show the world [that] here is the direction [it] should go [in]” (Rawlinson). Woz wanted to take the Altair 8800 and make something that was simpler to use, and Woz set an image of what the computers should look like and how they should be used.
Finally, what would we do without computers today? Without the first start of the computers, I don’t think the human mind would be smart enough to do certain calculations and algorithms to make dangerous weapons, like nukes. If engineers had to do all the calculations on paper and by head, nukes and rockets wouldn’t have been created as fast or even at all. Even if they still were being created they wouldn’t have been as powerful and useful for countries to use against each other. “Looking back on almost six decades since the end of World War II, it is astonishing how many important technological developments trace their origin to that conflict. Without that war, they would certainly have been delayed. Yet many of these technologies are too destructive, like nuclear bombs and intercontinental missiles, or involve unexpectedly high risks and costs, like nuclear power” (Headrick 147). World War II was pushing inventors to invent something that could be useful for the war or useful to make equipment for war. With engineers struggling with calculations, the invention of computers would help them with the calculations. This led to more precise measurements and it would let countries make equipment like rockets faster. “The complexity of modern weapons and the urgency of war inspired engineers and mathematicians in several countries to seek ways to hasten the process. In Germany, the electrical engineer Konrad Zuse built a digital computer using the telephone switches to perform the calculations used in designing rockets” (Headrick 131-132). Konrad Zuse was getting help from computers so that he could design rockets for the wars. Konrad was a key importance to Germany during this time because he was creating equipment that then Germany could use for their safety when the World Wars were going on. Today if no one took the basic Altair 8800 and started to create desktops and laptops it would be a lot harder on students and other people in society because maybe if computers continued, they could be used a little differently than today. There wouldn’t be the internet to look up everything, we would have to resort back to looking up things in books. “The 1970’s were a period of transition for personal computing. There was a change from the common usage of time sharing on large computers to the use of low-cost personal computers” (Allan 4/1). Making the computers more affordable for everyone, led to more people willing to buy this new piece of technology. If everyone was to buy a computer, everyone would want to use it differently, that’s when the internet and many different applications started to be created. So, that the user of the computer can use it for their needs and be successful.
The technology of computers has change the world because of how useful the computers were to everyone. The impact that the first personal computers had on society made an increase of other technologies to start up because of how inventors wanted their inventions to be able to be used with the new first personal computers. Without the invention of the Altair 8800 I don’t think Microsoft would be as big as it is today or even existing. That is because it took almost 40 years for someone to create a computer that would be powerful enough to run big programs like “BASIC”. Eventually maybe someone would have created a powerful computer but maybe computers wouldn’t look or work the same today. Also, if someone other than Roberts was to create the first personal computer to be powerful enough, what if they didn’t want to partner with Bill Gates? Possibly, another program would be the king of software’s on computers. The Altair 8800 impacted the world back then and now. Today, if computer use was different because of a skip from the Altair 8800 to the first Apple computers, I think everything would be different from how computers (desktops and laptops) look and work. This was the stepping stone and put a viewing image for other inventors to start creating more advanced computers off of the evolution of computers in the 1900’s.
Works Cited
Allan, Roy A. A History of the Personal Computer: the People and the Technology. Allan Pub., 2004.
Headrick, Daniel R. Technology: a World History. Oxford University Press, 2010.
“Microsoft Fast Facts: 1975.” Stories, 9 May 2000, news.microsoft.com/2000/05/09/microsoft-fast-facts-1975/.
Pacey, Arnold. Technology in World Civilization: a Thousand-Year History. MIT Press, 1990.
Rawlinson, Nik. “History of Apple: The Story of Steve Jobs and the Company He Founded.” Macworld.co, Macworld, 25 Apr. 2017, www.macworld.co.uk/feature/apple/history-of-apple-steve-jobs-mac-3606104/.
The Altair 8800 of Ed Roberts. history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Personal/Altair.html.