Space Technology

By: NWANOSIKE MICHAEL
          The computer and the abacus_ are they any different...?

                       

      Are there any philosophies that would interlock the simple abacus to the computer circuit? The early Chinese juggled and transfixed the beads across the stakes of the abacus to obtain results from addition and subtraction. More poles in the frame of the abacus would imply more digits, which would accommodate as many figures as would contain it…

    The civilization at that period had fewer problems to solve. Their level of technology just reflected that. A precise model made it easier to handle numbers, for a digit limit, in simple, everyday calculations. In a nutshell one could as well gather four stakes to represent a thousand digit bundles, saving him time and energy needed to assemble same number of stakes from reality.

    In intrinsic sense, nothing substantial has changed of late. A strip of film on the first computer device- in essence- and the modern-day computers, align perfectly for a play out in motion picture. Several technological axioms being incorporated into the racks may confuse the storyboard altogether-wiping away its artistic beauty. The rapid advancement in technology would cause a person of Newton’s caliber clueless, as to the underlying mechanism the latest computers operate on. We need not end that way: getting a close-up view on the microprocessor would aid in fitting this clue together_ the past and present computer system: millions of circuits are virtually drowned in a sea of electricity enclosed in their own space. In this seeming universe, different elements respond, in infinite permutations, to a finite impulse, which is well modulated. Though lifeless, the intricate arrangements of the circuits bear evidence to the fact they do interpret the language of arithmetic and logic. By the command of a rational individual, the emergence of its evolving intelligence takes place in earnest. The mechanisms in our world deviate from this… time frame. A flash of lightening would always run faster than a world record holder in sprinting.

     The microprocessor is an interface between the human end of the input, where it receives instructions_ most times storing it in the memory or disk drive_ in the language it is built to discern; and the output which would swiftly receive the results that had been processed, in an audio-visual display, or graphic details a literate individual would read at first glance. An orderly arrangement of the components within the control unit ensures that justice is done on common sense, better known as logic.

      A computer system which is an embodiment of all the parts mentioned above- input, output and control unit. But its branches could extend further: to control other devices to very core of their circuits if possible. For example, experienced pianists knows that a computer system, attuned to a task relevant to the piano or keyboard, would control the quality, rhythm, pitch…and compose any music just as it plays in his imagination; saving the discomfort he would get, having strained his fingers for long.    

      The keyboard viewed from a different context does the task of inputting texts into the system, mainly for word processing.  Typing a key with a document or program for a text (controls) to be displayed on the monitor involves a sequence of functions, which includes retrieving the magnetic or electrical equivalent from its slot in the hard disk, and printing the intelligible soft copy to screen. Word characters grouped, and allocated for a slot in the disk, constitutes a file; deleting the file entails demagnetizing a magnet that had already been magnetized at the slots. A hard copy could be made from the file; that is when the printer is needed.

    By virtue of the overwhelming complexity of the tiny components squeezed into the motherboard, it is no fluke that the computer system is employed to various uses, including the ones yet to be carved out. There is strength in numbers, best explains why the modern computer edges out the abacus to a very wide margin. However dissimilar; both evoke generate same opinion…there seems to be so much order in the inanimate world. The capacity of the computer system has evolved rapidly, with time, to stem the reasonable fraction of the challenges of civilization. So much has taken place in a few thousand years which makes it very young, especially on the evolutionary scale of humans.

       The computer isn’t an extraordinary tool after all: it has no will of its own, and it can’t imagine on its own, but humanity remains dazzled by its accuracy, precision, efficiency and speed. In fact it computes results at the speed of light, which is a common place in our physical world. Electromagnetic waves, adequately rectified by the chips are coded into workable data that generates energy at the slightest contact with hardware. Without the power output, memory capacity and a chip, the amount of energy generated within the control unit alone could cause an electrical mishap.       

      Memory lapses and a relatively limited medium of communication which boils down to the efficiency in the thought processes in humans_ are they to blame…?  However the response, the fact remains that we are wired to control computer and not the other way round: to relish its sheer simplicity and beauty in delineating the dimensional array of the body of knowledge… it cannot be ranked above the infinite intelligence that is squeezed in between the lobes of the human brain_ left for his will to unleash it_ the dignity, and esthetic appeal to nature scattered across peoples and cultures. Humanity travels in a vehicle, bolting across a technology road of computers (and similar ground breaking inventions): As many as the human brain can count; as smart as the human mind can invent; as extraordinary as his sixth sense can foresee.

       How many are seated in this large vehicle…? Perhaps, a century ago, if one had coined the term cybercafé... _as sensible as the word would sound on hearing_ many would likely think he or she is crazy. But we all know now that every syllable in that term in fact coins out correctly to create a beautiful picture in our minds eye- a system of one or two computers, hooked up to a network_ like stakes of the abacus_  with which one can canvass the whole world and beyond just at the touch of a button.