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Paper Abstract: An account of the emergence of PCs and its consequences for society. Background of development of the personal computer. Importance to popularity of PCs of the Internet. Security issues. Microsoft, Apple. Paper Introduction: The purpose of this research is to examine the rise and development ofthe personal computer PC social context in which the PC achievedprominence and the people and companies that made its emergence possible as well as three consequences of its appearance and spread in the culture Although the raw technology for personal computers had been known tohigh-technology specialists for decades and large-scale mainframecomputers were in fairly wide use by industry and government by the s the real onset of the PC industry Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Another effect is thathackers are almost uniformly characterized not as social critics but ascriminals, a perception reinforced by the fact that some hackers have alsotargeted individuals in government for harassment. In fact, Thomas asserts, hackers aremore concerned about "security flaws and understanding how they threatennetwork and computer security" (p. 177), and that virtual fact becomes a fact of one'sreality, one's lived experience. (1983). However, as Cringley points out, Kildall and Digitalwere slow to develop supporting language, slow to update CP/M, slow torespond to hardware innovations such as the 16-bit microprocessorsuccessors to the 8 8 chip (p. Software innovationand development kept up with hardware development, particularly on the DOSplatform. 4). ReferencesCringely, R.X. Such terms asconfigure, partition, interface, port, drive, and read/write that haveentered everyday language would have been arcane to most people in theearly 197 s. At another it involves hatred. The Culture of Technology. That implicates the status of human identity, which incyberspace becomes a self-created entity, and of reality itself, whichinevitably is called into question when the "real" experience is simulated. 3) because ofthe all-too-human values into the service of which technology has beenpressed. Loader, Cyberspace divide: Equality, agency and policy in the information society (pp. . Although the raw technology for personal computers had been known tohigh-technology specialists for decades, and large-scale mainframecomputers were in fairly wide use by industry and government by the 196 s,the real onset of the PC industry can be dated to the mid-197 s, when IntelCorporation put the 8 8 8-bit microprocessor on the market. Themarket- and proprietary-established systems are, nevertheless, placed inthe position of having to make their products more complex add "morefeatures to their OSes so that customers will not switch to the cheaperalternatives" (p. In his review of the rise of PC millionaire-innovators, Cringely comments that the more complex a software technologyis, the more likely it is to remain in use for a long period, resistinginnovation, because it is "too complex to change" (1996, p. A final consequence of the effects of the PC can be seen in the waythe definition of technology has become less clear and more diffuse withthe spread of computer technology throughout the culture. There is potential, in Turkle's view, tosuppress real self-knowledge if the reality of virtual experience is notchecked in some way. (1997). 34). 155-158). New York: Basic Books.Pacey, A. . The system wentinto thousands of PCs under other names as well, and out of that dynamicgrew Digital Research. (1998). However, Kaporfailed with the Symphony version of Lotus and an Apple version of Symphony,resisted a buy-out from Microsoft because of pressure from a partner, andthen basically lost interest in Lotus altogether, which led to Lotus'sdisappearance (Cringely, 1996, pp. The broad use of PCs inevitably had an enormous social and culturalimpact. Granted that Internet usage for mostPC users came some years after PC hobbyists and software and hardwaredevelopers had been in place in the market, the Internet can be seen as adecisive marker of PC history. (2 2). Feigenbaum & J. The purpose of this research is to examine the rise and development ofthe personal computer (PC), social context in which the PC achievedprominence and the people and companies that made its emergence possible,as well as three consequences of its appearance and spread in the culture. From one point ofview, as Pacey (1983) explains, technology is value-neutral, an apparatusthat expresses principles of engineering, not principles of socialorganization. Agraphical user interface made computers "more accessible to a lesstechnical audience [which] . How long they can encourage that idea among users,however, remains to be seen. 6 ). 5). The floppy-disk drive was the ideaof one Mike Markkula, formerly of Intel, who envisioned accounting-datastorage (Cringely, 1996, p. their seedy activities" (1998, p. (1995). New York: Touchstone. (1986). Another aspect of the moving target of technological definition is thedegree of complexity of the electronic architecture and software to whichPC hardware is attached. It is for thatreason that Pacey urges the use of the term technology-practice to describetechnology's interpenetration with human experience and expert systems,including the whole range of systems involved in social organization. On theother hand, hard-wiring operational features of computing had the effect ofinsulating the user from (or, alternatively, preventing user access to) theworks of the machine and resolving certain problems via software. Fundamental computer concepts. Yet, as a practical matter, "correct usage of the word in itsoriginal sense seems almost beyond recovery" (Pacey, 1983, p. (2 ). The same apparatus that can play computer Star Wars games canlaunch Star Wars missiles. For example, they created acolor screen on the Apple II not as a customer come-on but so that Wozniakcould play arcade games on the screen. 19). They also wroteversions of BASIC for "other microcomputers as they came to market,leveraging their core technology" (Cringely, 1996, p. Both Mac and Windows systems may face their most strikingcompetition in the form of open-source operating systems such as Linux.Linux could have been proprietary, but like its mainframe progenitor Unix,it was conceptualized as an open-source OS by originator Linus Torvalds.Its most striking feature, on Raymond's (2 1) analysis, is that from itsinception it was conceived of as a work in progress. It is important to recognize that Apple/Mac technology was largelyhardware-driven, whereas the Microsoft development model focused onlanguage and software. Cringely makes the point that in both hardware and software, thePC market has a bottomless appetite for innovation and that products mustcompete in some arena--price, power, speed, etc.--in order to survive.Products that have been eclipsed, Cringely argues, were created asultimate, not as works-in-progress, always vulnerable to competition orupdating. Reading, Mass.: Addison- Wesley.Haywood, T. In the beginning...was the command line. (1999). Hackers, says Thomas"actively constitute themselves as a subculture through the performance oftechnology" (2 2, p. New York: HarperBusinessDavis, W.S. Enter Apple, the brainchild of partners Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.Wozniak was a computer hobbyist, and Jobs "nagged" him to build computersfor sale. That is, Torvaldsreleased versions of the OS quickly--a process facilitated by the Internet--with a view toward incorporating as debugging protocols the feedback fromactual users of the OS into future versions of the program (Raymond, 2 1). CP/M wasa PC-derivative of a minicomputer setup running an operating system calledTOPS-2 . 11-35). constituted an incomparably vaster market"(Stephenson, 1999, p. Equally, thehardware approach to structuring computing functions was more expensive,which explains why Apple/Mac computers are more expensive than their DOS-based counterparts (Stephenson, 1999). The IBM/DOS platform ran 8-, 16-, and 32-bit processors in succession, as well as the Pentium and other high-speedprocessor configurations, and remains the most widely used and imitated PCstructure. The Internet began as a Department ofDefense project of text-based telecommunication. Today, according to Stephenson (1999), the practice of the two majorPC players--Microsoft and Apple--is to continually offer new features toincrease the perceived value of operating systems that are fundamentallystatic. Technology and the human element, particularly because of the PC, havefused in ways that were long ago anticipated, if not entirely clarified.Turing, in his seminal theory of computing potentialities articulated in195 , suggested not only that a machine can be created and then programmedto learn, but also that "at the end of the century the use of words andgeneral educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able tospeak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted" (Turing,1995, p. . It was at thattime, too, that Bill Gates and his partners were refining the BASICcomputer language for use on the Altair personal-computer kit that wasbeing marketed through the magazine Popular Electronics. 55). Computing machinery and intelligence. Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. Obviously not everybody can be a programmer, but asidefrom expert inputs that structure technology there is the competent userwho can learn to accomplish certain tasks, and the incompetent user to whommyriad features of computing remain a puzzle. 45). Onepractical effect is that hackers tend to target supposedly protectedtechnology such as the Windows OS, which is backed by corporate power andall of the restraint of access that implies, while valorizing and beingfascinated by open-source technology like Linux. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Turkle, S. make use of the Internet and globalnetworks to expand . Examples would be file-namingconventions; arcane terminology such as "extenders," "dot," and "serialport"; and such concepts as click-and-drag or drag-and-drop. 62-3), Wozniakmanipulated the hardware configuration of the early Apple machines todecrease the number of integrated circuits required to run programs. Today, computer-machine users who have no programmingsophistication at all can experience computer use as if the computer werethinking; it is not the machine that imitates human behavior but humanusers who imitate the information-processing utilities of the machine andwho have developed social language to reflect that fact. 32). Parallel with development of BASIC by Gates and partners was thedevelopment of an operating system known as CP/M by Gary Kildall. xx). Microprocessing technology would continue to develop around the PCthrough the 198 s, but hardware was not the only story. . 145).Nevertheless, innovation appears to be a significant feature of PCdevelopment, at least from a market perspective. The same apparatus that can advertise on theInternet the availability of a new widget or make computer solitaireavailable can preach religious intolerance via inflammatory hate-speech.The ever-increasing sophistication of what could be called the technicalaspects of technology enable that kind of diversity but also make it"merely" instrumental vis-à-vis human values; in that regard, Pacey notesthat precise distinctions between technical and technological have, likethe definition of technology, become increasingly elusive. Global networks and the myth of equality: Trickle down or trickle away? Herpoint, however, is that cyberspace has created a context in which the realprojection of intelligence occurs when one sends out one's communicationsto others' screens. (2 1). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Turing, A.M. In B. In other words, hacking isconceptualized as an intellectual and cultural exercise, inasmuch ashackers perceive themselves as cultural gadflies, or "hybrid figures whoblur the boundary between the technological and the cultural" (p. The same apparatus that can store pie recipes can store eye color,records of observed behavior, and political affiliations of an individualor group. Cambridge: O'Reilly.Stephenson, N. In that connection,Stephenson cites the rivalry that developed between DOS-based, command-line-driven machines and the Macintosh OS, which was graphically driven. New York: Avon.Thomas, D. Technology: Practice and culture. The Internet, via e-mailand data-retrieval protocols, transformed communications protocols and madenational borders more or less transparent and that--above all, according toLessig--transformed communication into commerce, essentially commodifyingthe encounters between individuals and the Other with which theycommunicate. Three consequences present themselves, two of which have to do withthe Internet per se and one of which has to do with the more generalpicture of ubiquitous PC presence in the culture. As a consequence, Digital and CP/Mwere to be eclipsed by more agile players in the marketplace. One aspect of this has to do with ordinary,instrumental PC use. Hacker culture. . It was the first operating system that actually worked on theIntel 8 8 microprocessor, under the hardware name Imsai. For example, Dan Bricklin's VisiCalc was eclipsed and laterabsorbed by Mitch Kapor's Lotus 1-2-3, which "became the single mostsuccessful computer application of al" (1996, p. 46). In other words, Mac and Windows developers will beobliged to impose complexity on their systems in hopes that their alreadycomplicated (and not infrequently flawed) platforms will be too complex, oras it were too difficult to define precisely, to make users feel thatchange is desirable. . That is significant because of the implications fortechnology architecture. . The individual becomes one of a group of "plugged-intechnobodies" (1997, p. Turkle also notes the evolution of discourse of artificialintelligence (AI), which has been seen as a real possibility and potentialthreat to human intelligence or as merely an instrument of the latter. New York: Routledge.Lessig, L. A very important development for the PC was the emergence of theInternet, or cyberspace, in the 198 s. Thehardware technology was also (and remains) proprietary. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1-12.Raymond, E.S. The whole matter is further complicated by the variability of humancompetence regarding technology and the highly variable learning curve thatnew high-tech users must face. not only as comprising machines, techniques andcrisply precise knowledge, but also as involving characteristic patterns oforganization and imprecise values" (Pacey, 1983, p. Accidental empires: How the boys of Silicon Valley make their millions, battle foreign competition, and still can't get a date. Haywood describes the "evilempires" of the Internet as "pornographers, fundamentalist religiousmovements, paedophile networks, racists, terrorists, ethnic cleansers,electronic stalkers [who] . The cathedral and the bazaar: Musings on Linux and open source by an accidental revolutionary. However, their early efforts at marketing and industry innovationwere personal rather than business oriented. Privacy is compromised, on onehand, because of the ability of official agencies to spy on Internet users'behavior, and access is compromised on the other to the degree onlineinformation must be purchased (Lessig, 2 ). At one levelthis involves PC crime--from old-fashioned swindles perpetrated online todeliberate attempts to invade and exert control of Internet architectureand data. (1996). During the 198 s, Microsoft developed the MS/DOS operating system forIBM-PCs; IBM's hardware became the industry standard for DOS (and laterWindows) software (Davis, 1986). That practice ofleveraging persisted through the 197 s, by which time Microsoft Corporationhad been formed by Gates and Paul Allen. . Feldman, Computers & thought (pp. The Mac GUI appears to have spurred developmentof Windows out of DOS, but the "debate" over whether Windows- or Mac-basedcomputing protocols are superior persists. As Cringely points out (1996, pp. 19). However,she cautions that these communities are "virtual" in character and aresimulated rather than actual communities. Lessig argues that there is an invisible hand of regulationwielded by a partnership between commerce and states, which control the"codes" that shape the architecture of cyberspace and which result incontrol of users' experience of cyberspace. 19-34). Interaction takes place notinterpersonally but as it were intradynamically, with the individual usersprojecting themselves onto others instead of really creating relationshipswith them. Thomas's examination of what herefers to as hacker culture covers the world of anarchic disruption of asupposedly secure technology-driven universe. He alsocites statistics from the computer-security company McAfee estimating that9 % of all firms are attacked by a virus every month (p. Hackers are said to have helped foster thecomputer revolution, but what many anticipated would be a free-market venueof ideas and technology was rapidly transformed by commercial operators.Meanwhile, hackers are perceived as a cross between "high-tech wizardry andcriminality" (Thomas, 2 2, p. Raymond's view is that open-source dynamics because of theirsimplicity will eventually overtake that debate, although he cautions thatpoorly conceived designs can be just as destructive in the open-sourcecommunity as in the community of proprietary and arcane technology. A second consequence of PC technology, fueled mainly though notexclusively via the Internet, is the surfacing of security issues, viademagogues and criminals on one hand and hackers on the other. 63). 147). Hacker analysis is more problematic. The concept of technology is best approached "as a human activityand as a part of life . 72). In E.A. As Turkle (1997) points out, the Internet has enabled unprecedentedopportunities for entire communities to socialize in cyberspace. Code and other laws of cyberspace. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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