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When you hear the word computer,
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maybe you think of something like a beefy gaming desktop with flashing lights,
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or maybe you think of a slim and sleek laptop.
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These fancy devices aren't what people had in mind when computers were first created.
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To put it simply, a computer is a device that stores
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and processes data by performing calculations.
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Before we had actual computer devices,
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the term computer was used to refer to someone who actually did the calculation.
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You're probably thinking that's crazy talk.
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A computer lets me check social media, browse the Internet,
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design graphics, how can it possibly just perform calculations?
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Well, friends, in this course,
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we'll be learning how computer calculations are baked into applications,
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social media, games et cetera,
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all the things that you use every day.
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But to kick things off,
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we'll learn about the journey computers took from
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the earliest known forms of computing into the devices that you know and love today.
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In the world of technology,
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and if I'm getting really philosophical, in life,
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it is important to know where we've been in
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order to understand where we are and where we are going.
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Historical context can help you understand why things work the way they do today.
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Have you ever wondered why the alphabet isn't laid out in order on your keyboard?
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The keyboard layout that most of the world uses today is the qwerty layout,
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distinguished by the Q, W, E, R,
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T, and Y keys in the top row of the keyboard.
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The most common letters that you type aren't found on the home row,
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where your fingers hit the most.
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But why?
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There are many stories that claim to answer this question.
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Some say it was developed a slow down typist so
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they wouldn't jam old mechanical typewriters.
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Others claim it was meant to resolve problem for telegraph operators.
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One thing is for sure,
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the keyboard layout that millions of people use today isn't the most effective one.
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Different keyboard layouts have even been created to try and make typing more efficient.
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Now that we're starting to live in a mobile-centric world with our smartphones,
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the landscape for keyboards may change completely.
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My typing fingers are crossed.
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In the technology industry,
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having a little context can go a long way to
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making sense of the concepts you'll encounter.
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By the end of this lesson,
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you'll be able to identify some of
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the most major advances in the early history of computers.
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Do you know what an abacus is?
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It looks like a wooden toy that a child would play with,
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but it's actually one of the earliest known computers.
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It was invented in 500 BC to count large numbers.
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While we have calculators like the old reliable TI-89s or the ones in our computers,
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abacuses actually are still used today.
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Over the centuries, humans built
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more advanced counting tools but they still
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required a human to manually perform the calculations.
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The first major step forward was the invention of
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the mechanical calculator in the 17th by Blaise Pascal.
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This device used a series of gears and levers
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to perform calculations for the user automatically.
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While it was limited to addition, subtraction,
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multiplication and division for pretty small numbers,
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it paved the way for more complex machines.
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The fundamental operations of
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the mechanical calculator were later applied to the textile industry.
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Before we had streamlined manufacturing,
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looms were used to weave yarn into fabric.
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If you wanted to design patterns on your fabric,
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that took an incredible amount of manual work.
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In the 1800s, a man by the name of Joseph Jacquard invented a programmable loom.
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These looms took a sequence of cards with holes in them.
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When the loom encountered a hole,
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it would hook the thread underneath it.
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If it didn't encounter a hole,
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the hook wouldn't thread anything.
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Eventually this spun up a design pattern on the fabric.
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These cards were known as punch cards.
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And while Mr. Jacquard reinvented the textile industry,
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he probably didn't realize that his invention would
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shaped the world of computing and the world itself today.
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Pretty epic Mr. Jacquard, pretty epic.
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Let's fast forward a few decades and meet a man by the name of Charles Babbage.
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Babbage was a gifted engineer who developed a series of machines that are
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now known as the greatest breakthrough on our way to the modern computer.
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He built what was called a difference engine.
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It was a very sophisticated version of some
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of the mechanical calculators we were just talking about.
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It could perform fairly complicated mathematical operations but not much else.
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Babbage's follow up to
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the difference engine was a machine he called the Analytical Engine.
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He was inspired by Jacquard's use of punch cards to automatically
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perform calculations instead of manually entering them by hand.
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Babbage used punch cards in his Analytical engine to allow
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people to predefine a series of calculations they wanted to perform.
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As impressive as this achievement was,
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the Analytical engine was still just a very advanced mechanical calculator.
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It took the powerful insights of a mathematician named
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Ada Lovelace to realize the true potential of the analytical engine.
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She was the first person to recognize that the machine
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could be used for more than pure calculations.
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She developed the first algorithm for the engine.
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It was the very first example of computer programming.
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An algorithm is just a series of steps that solves specific problems.
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Because of Lovelace's discovery that algorithms could
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be programmed into the Analytical engine,
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it became the very first general purpose computing machine in history,
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and a great example that women have had some of
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the most valuable minds in technology since the 1800s.
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We've covered a lot of ground already,
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learning about how primitive counting devices like the abacus
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evolved into huge complex devices like the Analytical engine,
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proof that there was life before social media.
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In the next video, we'll learn about how
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these mechanical machines made the leap into modern computing.
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