Could Builder technology save us?

 

When I was studying in the early seventies, my first computer experience was with an IBM machine that filled a room at university. Punch cards that were the order of the day. Holes in the cards had to be punched one program line at a time, one card to a line. Fortran IV was the language in common use. We learnt that "garbage in equals highly processed garbage out".

When I started working, I witnessed one of the first South African attempts to build a computer. The unit used minute magnetic memory cores. The processor boards were based on resistor-transistor technology and they were a nightmare to work with. The components were sandwiched between two printed circuit boards and difficult to replace. The computer's claim to fame was the elephant hide that covered the front panel of the unit.

A newer model had a bank of multi-coloured switches on the front that could be used to program the computer. This was a tedious job. Each program instruction had to be set up in turn and entered. A so-called boot loader program had to be typed in. The loader allowed the desired program to be run, the program as obtained via a paper tape reader. The paper tape had holes that defined the various computer instructions. Finger trouble and reader problems (such as a break or tear in the paper tape) resulted in a time-consuming process. The tape reader was also slow.

Then we had access to a process control computer that had a fast paper tape reader. The reader spat out the tape at such speed that the tape seemed to defy gravity for a metre or two before the tape started to dip downwards. A "golf ball" version typewriter was used to input computer commands.

Micro controllers started making their appearance. The COSMAC 1802 micro controller used instructions that could take milliseconds to execute. The Intel 8748 controller was a single chip controller that had onboard programmable memory as well as random access memory. The Intel 8086 CPU became available and then its variants such as the 80286 and so on.

Fun was had at home playing games on the Integer Apple computer, it used BASIC as its language. Then there was the Apple II Plus with its separate peripherals such as floppy disks. The IBM home computer made its appearance. Computer hard drives were mechanical devices and were bulky in size. They typically had twenty megabytes of memory and were relatively unreliable, mechanical devices wear out faster than electronics.

These days we are spoiled with fast computers that run at gigahertz speeds and have huge amounts of memory. Quantum computers are making their appearance. There is some evidence to suggest that super conducting materials are being discovered that work at standard room temperature and air pressure, that do not impede the flow of electrical energy. Such a discovery could further speed up computer technology.

Well, the above technological advances have taken place over the last forty years or so. Imagine what could be possible if we look back from a thousand years or more into the future? Always assuming that we get there.

Maybe the Master Builders that appear in the book by Wilbur Schmarr might help us to speed up our progress? That is if they are prepared to help and if we don't try to use their technology in a destructive manner....