Computer Revolution

Essay by Anonymous UserHigh School, 11th gradeA+, November 1996

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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.