CS2642 & SWE2643 Computers and Society/Professional Practices and Ethics
Lecture 1--ENIAC Introduction
© 2001, 2002 Richard Halstead-Nussloch, Ph.D.
All Rights Reserved
Overview
ENIAC...
The book
The story
The role of ENIAC in our course
The role of ENIAC in your lives and careers
The role of ENIAC in society
The book--Introduction
Summary
The Book, ENIAC
by Scott McCarney
Caught my eye…
I scanned it, starting with the price…
Saw my graduate school (University of Michigan) mentor on page 67
Read and remembered some things
I read the Introduction in the checkout line
The cover and front matter tag lines are true!
Thus, I chose the book
The Story Beginning--ENIAC
The WWII Allies were desperate in early ‘43
Breakthroughs were needed, e.g., firing tables
Computers were used to develop them
The computers of the time were not fast enough and required rest
WHY?
Computers were people, predominately women (my mentor married one)
Solution: Develop an electronic computer for firing tables
Side Story--Information Technology (IT) in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany made wide use of IT during WWII
Which IT?
Hollerith Card Technology & Demographics
What for?
Implement the Holocaust--the number 1 goal of Nazi society
Recent revelations have raised many ethical questions about this set of issues.
The Role of ENIAC in Our Course
ENIAC provides a case study illuminating many of the major societal, ethical, and professional-practice issues of computing .
ENIAC is largely still an unknown, a secret, and a mystery.
ENIAC as a story is captivating
McCartney is a good story teller.
Knowing the ENIAC story can help you
Avoid some of the mistakes made by Eckert and Mauchly.
Develop professional principles of practice and ethics
The Role of ENIAC in Your Lives and Careers
You are here in this course, in your major, in this school because of ENIAC
It was the first electronic computer
It enabled your career
There is a large impact on your life today because of ENIAC, e.g.,
Computing innovation follows Moore curve (capability per dollar doubles every 18 months)
Consumers get and expect more; BUT Producers have to do more and better and faster
The Role of ENIAC in Society
As a society, we Americans value technological breakthroughs and innovations.
But, only after they occur.
And often with indifference to the innovators.
ENIAC has enable our breakthrough to the information and knowledge society.
Eckert, Mauchly, and the others on page 67 are relatively obscure historical figures.
ENIAC
--The Introduction
- In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue beat chess master Kasparov for the first time
- Since the 1960’s, computers and IT have enable unprecedented human productivity and growth
- How many computers do you have? Do you use?
- Where did it all start?
The Start
Electronic computers started with ENIAC (my mentor disagrees)
Presper Eckert and John Mauchly headed up the team
Moore School at U. Penn.
Aim--Firing tables--A weapon of war
40 cabinets (9’ in size)
18,000 vacuum tubes
Why--ENIAC was the first effective use of electricity to compute
The Significance
Eckert, Mauchly, and the ENIAC team created not only a new machine, but a new science, which also revolutionized IT.
But, Eckert and Mauchly were lousy marketers and poor businessmen, dying
Without commensurate wealth
Without fame, e.g., Gates or von Neumann
This course aims to position you to do better in working with computers in and with
Society, including business
Professional practices, including ethics
Summary
ENIAC...
The book--caught interest
The story--virtually unknown, but important
The role of ENIAC in our course--central
The role of ENIAC in your lives and careers--(fill in)
The role of ENIAC in society--revolutionary
The book--Introduction--ENIAC, Eckert, & Mauchly: ALL Virtually Unknown, but extremely important for computing and you
How we will use
ENIAC
To better understand our profession’s history
To better understand the role of computers in society
To identify areas for professional practices
To identify issues and areas of issues for ethics in computing