Age of Computer Essay

Eras in the register of art and architecture whitethorn be distinguished by styles such as Renaissance, Gothic, Impressionist or Surrealist, and so on.Techniques too cod marked different eras over the pennyuries from the antediluvian tools of the St single Age, to the Industrial Age marked by steam and galvanic power and the disco precise of turbines, and engines.Today, we have entered a brisk era the calculating machine age an age which owes ein truththing to spotters.Charles Babbage, an English mathematician, is considered to be the great-grandfather of the reckoner. Over 150 age ago, in 1840 to be exact, he invented a sophisticated calculating machine, and c entirelyed it the analytic Engine. As with both(prenominal) plans, his creation was far in advance of its time.It took a nonher(prenominal) 100 years before the first figurers were built, and as you know, they were huge and improbably heavy. Take, for instance, the famous Mark I. It was the gentlemans gentlemans first electro-mechanical calculator and was use during creative activity War 2 by the U.S. Navy. In comparison to 20th-century arrangings,it could be likened to a battleship 2.6 meters high, 16 meters wide, 2 meters deep, and weighing a commodious 5 tonsThe machine the hardw be could not develop without the softw are product to match, of course. In this respect, two women mathematicians played key roles.adenosine deaminase Lovelace Byron, daughter of the poet passkey Byron, wrote in 1843 what today wed call programs for Charles Babbages Analytical Engine. She was a pioneer and is considered to be the very first programmer in history. Thats why 130 years later, the U.S. Department of Defence gave her forename Ada A-D-A to one of the most important computer programs in the world. It is used not completely by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force but overly by big industry, universities, and some other centers of research.Grace Hopper, an American woman, invented in 1952 th e very first compiler of all times, a program which translates a programme language so that it can be understood by computers. It was a sensational breakthrough which opened doors to automatic programming and thus at once to contemporary personal computers (PCs).Today, computers are at the center of thousands upon thousands of other inventions. They are the take intbeats of the modern world. Computers are every-where from kitchens to concrete mixers, from planes to pockets. They listen. They speak. They act. Never in world history has one invention had such an influence on humanity as a whole. Without the computer age, there would be no global awareness.Internet, in particular, has created a brand new environment. A new culture has been natural free, rapid, and universal where people share their knowledge and expertise. Information and communication techniques have been turned upside down, distance has been eliminated, frontiers abolished. A tremendous interactive viable is burgeoning on our planet Earth today. Like it or lump it no(prenominal) can stop itI would like to mention something concerning Internet. The inventors in 1990of the World Wide Web (WWW), which revolutionized the contemporary computer world, did not induce millionaires. British Tim Berners-Lee and Belgian Robert Caillau, both researchers at European Centre for Nuclear get a linek (CERN) in Geneva, did not make any money through their invention of the WWW. They refused to patent it. They feared that in so doing, the use of the Web would prove prohibitively expensive preventing its use worldwide. Thus, they passed up a fortune so that our world can learn and communicate today, and we should be grateful to them for their foresight.The invention of the computer with its multitude of programs and new information technologies is transforming the traditional perception of an inventor. A lots positive attribute is emerging. No longer personified by an eccentric crackpot, a crackpot male genius working alone in attic, service department or basement, todays inventors resemble more and more millions of other scientists, industrial researchers and entrepreneurs in workshops or laboratories surrounded by a computer station. All use the mouse instead of a pencil, and their drawing boards are computer screens.Women inventors have also contributed to this change in the traditional image of the inventor, particularly in certain fields such as interpersonal chemistry, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, not to speak of computer software.In the USA, for instance, the number of women inventors with patents in the field of chemistry increased three-and-half times during the period from 1977 (2.8%) to 1988 (9.9%). It would be interesting indeed to see what further increases have taken place over the past 10 years.Another popular fallacy is not only that the large bulk of inventors are eccentric and male, but they are also perceived as being raZther ancient The truth is that, th anks to the computer, people are genuinely inventing more and more at an increasingly youthful age. In te Valley, a 30-year old inventor is considered already long in the tooth, and many a(prenominal) newcomers to the inventive world are in their 20s. Some predict that in a few years time,therell be a new genesis of 14-year-old millionaire inventors appearing in Silicon ValleyUnfortunately, this new generation of inventors women and very young people is in satis situationoryly present among representatives of most inventor associations worldwide. These are still run by people who, although totally utilise to their work, were neither born nor grew up in the computer age. Therefore they keep an eye on adaptation difficult. Information technology frequently passes them by. This is often a suit of very real problems.lighbulbInternet.jpg (1394 bytes)Lets now consider some of the ways inventors can make use of the new technologies of the computer age.We all know that inventors ne ed a lot of information. Technological information contained in patent registers is essential at the very earliest corresponds of invention. It can keep down duplication in research work. It can suffer ideas for further ontogeny of existing technology. It can also give a glimpse of the expert activities of competitors. That is why unembellished subprograms have put their patent documentation selective informationbases on the Internet. Access is not only fast, but easily accessible, and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.Its also free in the sense that it doesnt cost the inventor a single cent to consult such documentation Time-consuming travel to plain Offices or libraries storing patent documents is a thing of the past. The inventor also has access to much more info than through a single database. Obviously, the ideal is one huge library, containing millions of patent documents from all over the world.The European Patent Office (EPO) has tried to create this world library of patent documents. I am glad to inform you that IFIA Web site allows surfers to visit this EPO site, and through it, to kickoff to the major providers of patent information in the world, whether they be Patent Offices or privateenterprises, such as IBM. A further advantage is the eonian updating of all these databases by each of the providers. In brief, its sufficient to click on one address, the EPO address, to access millions of documents .lighbulbInternet.jpg (1394 bytes)For many inventors, the marketing stage often starts with a prototype to prove that the product works satisfactorily, and whats more, works safely. The greater a models perfection, the greater the chances of marketing a license to a manufacturer. solely a professional prototype, as close to the final product as possible, can rapidly become extremely expensive.One fantastic and inexpensive alternative to a somatogenic prototype is a computerized model. Basically, it amounts to modelling the invention from all angles on a computer, with self-running commentary, demonstrations and animation of all the inventions functions. The diskette or zero disk can be duplicated in as many copies as necessary, and sent via regular mail.The computerized prototype can also be blotto onto a telecasting tape and copies made. Busy executives prospective investors, licensees or buyers seem, however, to prefer a diskette which is easy to put into the computer, in addition to the fact that most offices do not have a TV and VCR. The video tape would seem more appropriate when presenting an invention at an army or fair.On the subject of invention shows, let me stress in passing that practical(prenominal) exhibitions exist already. One of IFIAs members, the Hungarian knowledge of Inventors, even launched an international competition of inventions last March with a virtual jury, each member sitting serenely in front of his/her computer screen, somewhere around the world.lighbulbInternet.jpg (139 4 bytes)With the computer age upon us, we are also base slowly but surely away from the traditional paper system of filing patent applications to the newelectronic filing system a rapid and cheap transmission system of text and image data.Patent Offices are now engaged in preparing the necessary tools to assist inventors and other applicants in this form of electronic commerce. Naturally, their Web sites lead have to provide links to reference material, technical guidelines and instructions on filing applications.The Patent Cooperation Treaty ( part), administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, provides inventors and industry with an advantageous route for obtaining patent protection worldwide. Starting from January 1, 1999, the PCT is offering a reduction of US$ 200 (two hundred) for every electronic filing. Thats kinda an encouragement to use this systemHowever, no system is perfect. It still remains a fact that Patent Offices are confront wi th serious technical issues related to information security system. Namely How to ensure the security and authenticity of the transmission and exchange of unpublished therefore confidential data? The next question to arise is Who leave behind be responsible in case of third-company intrusions? The Patent Office? or the applicant?Because of the international disposition of the patent system, it has been decided recently that all information security issues will be examined in the framework of WIPO.To better understand some of the many issues involved, I would like to give two examples as described in a WIPO document discussed a few days ago in Geneva any exchange between applicants and examiners requires excellent levels of security and data privacy. Furthermore, many of these activities require some assurance of the identity of one party or another. For example, if an applicant is exchanging information with an examiner, the examiner postulate to know that the several(preno minal) is indeed authorized to provideinformation, (e.g. proof of identity), and the applicant require to be confident that he or she is indeed in contact with a patent examiner and not a clever hacker. The exchange of precedency documents provides another interesting example. If a priority document is to be interchange in electronic form, it needs to be validated by the originating party. In other words, the document needs to be signed to demonstrate its authenticity, it needs to have a guaranteed time stamp associated with the transaction, preferably by a third party (to prevent presumed or actual forgery of dates and times), and it needs to have some guarantee of accuracy, so that a party obtaining the document can tell if tampering occurredlighbulbInternet.jpg (1394 bytes)Every now and then we hear some people say, Theres hardly anything left to invent. Everything has been invented already. What a silly remark You can be certain that inventors will continue inventing, and new discoveries will be made, right up to the very last minute before the world comes to an end But to buffet to today, with the computer age, the possibilities of invention are endless and in all possible fields.It has also been said that the computer will eventually invent the inventor. By that I mean that one day, the computer will replace the inventor. Up to a point, I must agree but only to a certain extent. You can feed the computer with billions of data. One has even shell a world chess champion. Nevertheless, the computer has no humanity, no imagination, no sensitivity or affectivity, and no inherent wisdom. displace it smell the fragrance of a rose? interpret the color of a sunrise? Can it caress the cheek of a child? or savor the gustatory perception of Hong Kongs dim sum? Above all its a machine a fantastic machine but remember, its only a machine.So lets not make a new god out of the computer, as some tend to do. But rather use its possibilities to a maximum and thr ough it, try quite simply to build a better world. That should be our motto.