Computer Science, the theory and methods of processing
information in digital computers, has been a growing field since its
development in the last century. Since
the introduction of the first computers, there have been exponential
advancements in the power, speed and availability computers. These advancements have come from two main
areas. The first area is the improvement
of hardware, the other advancements in software. The evolution of hardware is greatly due to
Electrical and Computer engineers, while the advancements in software are largely
due to computer scientists. While the advancements
in hardware allowed more people to purchase computers, it was the advancements
in software that redefined the computer experience.
Computers started out as tools only available in
universities for researchers who needed to make large calculations. Today computers are considered a necessity
for every home. This idea that everyone
needs a computer is very recent in the grand scale seeing as most computer where
made available to houses in the last 25 years.
The familiarization with computers is due to computer scientists
constantly making computing easier to understand normal users. Once upon a time, users had to manually
communicate with the computer via a terminal and run commands. Now almost every
application has a graphical user interface which has nice shiny buttons which
anyone can understand.
My first introduction to computer science was my earliest encounters
with a computer. I used a computer
mainly for word processing and the occasional video game. How a computer worked, I had no idea. I was fascinated by computers considering
them black magic because I could not comprehend how the first computer was
made. Many years later, after spending
years studying the subject it makes sense to me but I am no less amazed. The history of how a computer started as a
theoretical concept of Boolean algebra to the development of high level
languages such as Prolog which can deductively reason for themselves show the
dramatic amount computer science has progressed.
Today advancements in computer science continue to pave the road
for the future of programming. The advancements
in the internet have changed the way people use a computer once again. Now everything is done on the cloud. Advancements in computer science areas such
as Database have allowed websites such as Facebook to be created thus changing
the way people communicate. There has
been a paradigm shift away from local computing and towards that of the
internet. Computers now are mainly used
as an instrument to connect people via the website to communicate and look up
data.
The history of computer science continues to be
written. My goal in life is to look back
and say that I have contributed.
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