What do we use computers for then? I mean, these things are simply tools, so what's their 'thing'? Like, if you want to knock a nail in, you get a hammer. Drill a hole, the clue's in the title. But for computers it seems we focus on the wrong end - we look at the tool and say, 'what job can we do with that?'. Originally they were used, as the name suggests, for computing things - oversized calculators, basically. But now the useage profile of this tool is somewhat more fluffy. So, here are some of my thoughts on the aspects of what job computers are for (so far).
Information is clearly a big thing for computers. Information means any data that has meaning. Computers are the tools we have for manipulating information. Using computers we store it, retrieve it, edit it, perform automatic operations with it and share it around.
Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch to call that list exhaustive - I have two chat windows open right now and they fit, but only very badly into the list above. Video and voice are even more of a stretch.
However, I think this enumeration is useful to me when thinking about a holistic computer system.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment