Essay/Term paper: The computer revolution

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Information Technology

The Computer Revolution


If I were to make a history book of the years from 1981 to 1996,
I would put computers on the cover. Computers, you may ask?, Yes computers,
because if there were suddenly no computers on the world, there would be total
chaos. People could not; communicate, commute, make business transactions,
purchase things, or do most things in their daily routine, because power plants
use computers to control the production of electricity.
Computers have evolved extreme rapidly in the past fifteen years.
Ten years ago, all that you could do with a computer, was primarily make
mathematical calculations and type documents, but doing that required typing in
a series of complex codes that took a great deal of training to learn. Then the
Apple computer company took this complex computer language and evolved it to a
simpler system of computer language using words that made sense in their context.
This system was called BASIC. BASIC was a major development in the computer
industry, because it made computers accessible to the average American. This
helped greatly in proving that computers were no longer just toys and they had a
very useful purpose. Most people still felt the cost was too great for a
glorified typewriter.
Several years after they introduction of the BASIC system, Apple
introduced a new line of computers called the Macintosh. These Macintosh
computers were extreme easy to use, and were about the same price of a computer
that used BASIC. Apple's business exploded with the Mac, Macintosh were put in
schools and millions of homes proving that the computer was an extreme useful
tool after all. The Macintosh made such an impact on the computer industry that
IBM and Microsoft joined forces to produce the MS-DOS system. The MS-DOS system
was the basis of the Windows program, which made Bill Gates the multi-
billionaire that he is. With windows and the Apple system, the modem which had
been around for several years, could be used for its full potential. Instead of
linking one computer to another, now millions of computers could be linked with
massive main frames from on-line services such as; American On-Line or Prodigy.
People finally had full affordable access to the World-Wide-Web and could
communicate with people across the street or across the world. The internet is
used by millions of people across the world each day for a vast variety of
reasons from getting help with homework, to reading a magazine, to getting
business information such as stock quotes, to planning a trip and making
reservations, to send and receive e-mail, or even listen to music or watch a
video clip.
Businesses would come to a grinding halt if their computers
suddenly stopped. Business men would not be able to communicate with one
another, because they could not use phones, pagers, cellular phones, fax
machines, or e-mail. People could not write documents because many offices do
not even have a typewriter. Business is not the only aspect of our lives that
is effect by computers, we could not by things at the store, use most appliances
in our homes, drive our cars, or even get electricity, because the power
commands use computers to control the flow electricity.
In the future, computers will play an even more important role
in our lives. Computers will link the citizens of this country with the
government, some day making it possible for the citizens to directly vote on
each bill that is up for vote. This will make America the first true democracy
since the Greeks.