Prehistory of the Internet:
1843 - 1956
On July 1, two thousand clerks begin processing the 1890 U.S. census, assisted by engineer Herman Hollerith's mechanized tabulating system. This event -- the most extensive information-processing effort ever undertaken -- launches the creation of the office-machine and paves the way for the founding of IBM (International Business Machines).
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Working at the Bureau of the Census during the long, tedious, manual processing of the 1880 census, Hollerith recognized the need for mechanization. He developed the idea of recording each person's information (age, sex, and ethnicity) as a pattern of punched holes on a card. An electromechanical machine, of his design, could tabulate the information from the card automatically.
In 1888 Hollerith's system is chosen for the 1890 census tabulation. On August 16, 1890, the system yields a total population of 62,622,250 -- a disappointingly low figure, according to a public that had been led to expect at least 75,000,000. The media paint a disparaging picture of Hollerith's machines, but his confidence never wavers.
The tabulation continues, with one hundred machines operated by eighty clerks who can each process about one thousand cards an hour. Two and a half years later, the census processing is complete. Hollerith's system shaves more than four years off the previous census processing and saves the government an estimated $5 million.
The Hollerith Electric Tabulating System is used again in the 1900 census, but by 1905 Hollerith's interests have gravitated toward commercial ventures. He tailors his machines for processing information in business settings, and by 1911 he runs a prosperous punched-card office-machine company. That year, his health failing, Hollerith sells the business to a holding company, which in 1924 becomes the enormously successful IBM.
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These days, it's common to speak about close friends from the Internet, whom we've never actually met in the flesh. But today's sense of "virtual reality" is as old as communications itself. Ironically, many of our most cherished communications inventions have come by way of studying the lives and needs of people with disabilities, for whom the world is always, in some sense, "virtual." For instance, the first typewriter was invented for a blind nobleman who wanted to be able to write as well as his sighted neighbors. A long-time researcher of the deaf, Alexander Graham Bell, perfected the "phonautograph" -- a device that translated sound into mechanical motions that deaf students could visualize. This device paved the way for the later invention of the telephone. And there are still teeth marks on the phonographs in the workshop of Thomas Edison, where the deaf inventor used to "listen" to his "talking machine" play recordings. While inspired by the needs of people with disabilities, these writing, listening, and talking machines now play a crucial role in what we think of as the "virtuality" of our Internet experience. For example, typing on a keyboard allows us to speak and listen without sound, in online locations we call "chat rooms." State-of-the-art text-reader computer programs allow Net surfers with visual impairments to "see" what's being said online -- by hearing it read aloud by their computer. Turn-of-the-century Americans were as exhilarated and suspicious about their virtual technologies as we are about ours today. When Edison played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" from his phonograph, his assistants checked the room thoroughly, convinced he was pulling off a hoax. Bell had similar experiences with the introduction of his telephone. As people grow more familiar with the technologies of their day, suspicions wane and enthusiasm grows. After all, what's not to like? In one sense, virtuality promises a kind of immortality for our physical bodies. Edison recognized this potential; he once described the phonograph as a technology that "speaks with your voice and utters your words, centuries after you have crumbled into dust." Others worry that technologies that mimic our bodies will eventually become better at being human than we are. Internet lore is full of stories of very smart folks who still mistake "bots" (computer programs roaming chat rooms and MOOs) for actual people and even fall in love with them. When pressed, these people insist that the bot seemed more human (and had better social skills) than most of the people on the Net. Even this isn't new. Most communications enthusiasts through history have preferred the virtual to the fleshly. Legend has it that Edison himself turned down an operation that would have improved his hearing. He explained that "being deaf has saved me from having to listen to a lot of small talk." |