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Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Software as a service In his fabulous 1970s television series Connections, James Burke traced the origins of the modern computer back to the Jacquard Loom, the revolutionary...") |
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===Digitisation of information: a history=== | |||
In his fabulous 1970s television series Connections, {{author|James Burke}} traced the origins of the modern computer back to the [[Jacquard loom]], the revolutionary silk-weaving machine Joseph Marie Jacquard perfected in 1804. Jacquard used removable punch-cards to “program” the weaving process, in much the same way a self-playing piano reads a punched card to pay a tune. | |||
Jacquard’s loom was an important waystation in the development of programmability and plasticity of machines. For the first time, one could change a machine’s output without having to physically re-engineer the machine itself. | |||
Jacquard’s loom was an important waystation in the programmability | |||
Jacquard’s loom was “digital” in the sense that it reliably carried out specific actions by reference to preconfigured instructions, encoded on card, without human intervention. | |||
You might want to call the data on these cards “symbols”, but they are not: a symbol is a linguistic representation of on one [[substrate]] of something else. A symbol requires interpretation — an imaginative connection of the symbol with the thing it represents. In “reading” the punched card, Jacquard’s loom did not interpret anything. The cards contained unambiguous, binary instructions to carry out specific functions — namely to create the intricate oriental patterns so sought after in the salons of haute couture in 19th century Paris. | |||
Jacquard’s machine offered more than just flexibility. It separated the information comprising a given pattern from the machine that made it. It was printed on the cards. Information — binary data needing no intelligence, interpretation or skill to process — was suddenly portable. Jacquard could send instructions for the latest weave from Paris to Lyon without having to transport a bloody great automated loom down there. | |||
So the stages of computerisation of human tools. | So the stages of computerisation of human tools. | ||
Hand tools The Loom does nothing more than reliably carry them out. | Hand tools The Loom does nothing more than reliably carry them out. | ||