General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOctober 4, 1957..A day in history that is affecting you at this very moment..
..Sputnik ..Russians launch the first space satellite. Those of us who were alive remember because the U.S.A was thought to be the leader in the "Space Race" and the Russians beat us to the first satellite, and wewere shocked that we didn't do it first. We were the leaders in science and technology, but they did it first..
...Those who were alive and old enough remember the shock and feeling of loss that we did not do it first. But how did that affect us right now?
...Here is how: That day resulted in a "Space Race" We would go on this voyage, and they would do that
voyage. Without getting into details, each rocket had to lift more and more equipment and the capsules,
needed to weigh more and were much larger and more to lift more stuff into outer space. As we moved along, doing exactly that scientists realized if they downsized the equipment to fit in the space capsules, they could lift more stuff into outer space. More stuff means more time in space and longer flights. We eventually got to the moon but that is a different story.
...A result of .."downsizing stuff" was that early computers that were very large and didn't do much, were ..."downsized" and did more. The space race advanced computer development through newer and
smaller computers and additional equipment to support those early computers that eventually went to the moon in the early 70s. Early computers took up the size of a room, and did not do much. As they down-sized them for the space race, the computers got smaller and smaller and were developed, so
they could do more & have larger memories. No computer in the 60s and 70s could do what the one
that you are viewing this is doing now..
...The most important aspect of the above "Space Race" is that it motivated scientists to downsize and lighten computers in a way that was unthinkable at the time. Computers continued to get smaller with more memory and other "stuff" and eventually in the early 80s they went on sale to the public. Early home computers cost thousands of dollars.
Downsizing and miniaturization continues until today. Once in the early 80s I took a course in understanding what computers were and would be, the professor said that one day you would be able to hold a computer in your hand. Of course I thought that was impossible, since then computers were only available to the government and certain colleges, and they were very large back then...
Nevertheless, that downsizing has continued until right now. I remember the first time I saw someone walking around the track with a "cell phone' (late 90s or early 00s) I said to myself that
thing is so expensive that I will never own one. Well I own one, and am typing on a
computer right now. All this was speeded up because of October 4, 1957. No one knows how much
faster, but without October 4, 1957, I doubt we would be where we are now.
elleng
(130,732 posts)as it was also the day my family and I left home (L.I. NY) for a trip to Europe!
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)when they interrupted the program with the special announcement. As a big astronomy/sci fi/space travel buff at the time, it really blew me away. (Anybody else remember Chesley Bonstall?)
Stuart G
(38,414 posts)their hands, "Beam Me Up Scotty." Thinking holding one in your hands will not happen in my lifetime.
Well it has, and it is not just a communicator to talk with, it is also a full fledged computer.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)His art appeared in sci fi magazines, and very often in the main stream publications like Life Magazine...
I just looked him up a found out I had misspelled his name. It's Bonestell, not Bonstall. My bad. That'll teach me to rely on a memory ith a best-by date that expired 60 years ago.
I vividly remember this article in Colliers Magazine from 1952. I drolled over his artworks, and pasted them in my scrapbook.
Silent3
(15,147 posts)Hell, even in the mid 70s there were some crude home computers, like the Altair, and the Apple II went on sale in 1977. I owned one myself by 1981. And in some ways (not by leaps and bounds) that was more powerful than the computer aboard the first lunar lander.
By the 90s home computers, while not ubiquitous, were pretty well established, and much more powerful.
Stuart G
(38,414 posts)trackfan
(3,650 posts)A newspaper headline from then.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)taking a passing withdrawal out of computer programming class in 1975, and was told, "No big deal, only the government and scientists will use computers, anyway."
War speeds up technology, and the Space Race was a proxy war.
marked50
(1,364 posts)At the time I was only 4 years old but when I really got into the schooling system I was selected for an accelerated math program at the age of 8. This was directly in response to JFK's space race program.
Now, I didn't invent anything great for that effort (or really anything else) but it gave me wonderful opportunities. I learned Fortran programming at the age of 16- when computers were using punch cards.
This eventually lead me to working for Intel, and that is when I could really contribute to the evolution of computing to where we are today.
I can only thank those way back then for their foresight for this country.
Hekate
(90,556 posts)Which meant other classes had to be on par as well. I was 10 years and one week old that day in 1957, and while I didnt remember the date, I surely remember the event.
Like most people, I never thought Id work with, much less own, a computer. Those things filled whole rooms and required punch cards!
I got my first home computer at the end of the 80s, I think, and it was a dandy little tool. When I went to university (late 60s) I had used a manual typewriter for all my papers, and cut and paste was literal. When I had little kids to support I learned to use an IBM Selectric to get a job.
But that Mac I bought for myself I just fell in love with it. Small, light, intuitive, I used it first for my volunteer work, and ultimately for every paper I wrote for my Masters degree. I upgraded to one with internet access while I was working on my PhD, and again, every paper and my entire dissertation went through that machine flawlessly. No punch cards required.
electric_blue68
(14,818 posts)... either I have a vague memory, or by the time I was 5 or 6 I heard about it in passing because The Space Race was on!
As for Watergate I followed it pretty closely - I'd been a part poltical person by the time I was ?12-13. By Watergate time I was ?22.
The "plummers", the tape on the ?Dem HQ door, 18min tape gap, John Dean testifying, Saturday Night Massacre.
All crazy, awful..
But the best was I, and 2 others were together at a
C,S,N & Y Concert in NJ...
.
.
.
.
.
...the night he resigned! Yes, practically every second person had some kind of radio with them because the rumors of him resigning were running rampant!!!
I don't remember what song they had finished but someone ran out from the right of stage, ran up to one of them, and whispered in his ear. Then they announced "Nixon has resigned! Of course, the audience went bananas!!! It was Wonderful!
Hopefully on Nov 3 or 4 we'll be as deliriously happy, or probably even more so!!!. Cause it'll be a big win, including The Senate that we'll know by then.
DFW
(54,291 posts)My father attended an above-ground atomic bomb test in Nevada. He didn't get his first case of cancer until 1992. He beat that easily. He then got pancreatic cancer in 2000, and though he fought it for 11 months, he did not survive it.
Did attending the A-bomb test in 1957 increase his susceptibility to cancer forty years later? Who knows? But that the military let anyone within sight of the thing was probably already endangering whoever was there.
*on edit: these were HIS pictures from the actual event.