So far in our journey we've seen the evolution of symbols and pictographs into our current alphabets, as well as the birth of printing, type design and graphic design. We've explored the rise of industrial design, efficiency with equipment and the beginning of human factors and design to fit people and improve processes. But we haven't really talked about computers yet.

Up to this point, computers had evolved into large machines that took up whole rooms and required people to write programs on punch cards that then were given to an operator. You might wait a few days for the output of that programming before you even knew if it worked.

In the 1960's during the space race, computers were actual women (called computers - see the movie Hidden Figures). These women were mathematicians who calculated all the trajectories for the astronauts with more precision and speed than the large rooms of computer equipment. If this interests you and you like Science Fiction, I highly recommend The Lady Astronaut of Mars and then The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Despite the delays and size and inability to spend extensive amounts of time on computers at the time, people still were creative, they played games, they exchanged messages across universities and collaborated on programs and ideas even though this was all mediated by time delays and punch cards. You'll read a little about this in the People's History of Computing chapter.

In 1969, the future of computing changed forever, when Douglas Englebart delivered what became called "The Mother of All Demos."

There are 3 parts to the video posted - watch Video 1 at a minimum - and then think about the questions in the writing prompt. Post your thoughts to your Medium blog.