Can I read When Computers Were Human on EtoBox?

When Computers Were Human by Grier, David Alan is a history book available to read on EtoBox.

What is When Computers Were Human about?

Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. __When Computers Were Human__ represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between,

Who reads When Computers Were Human?

Author

Grier, David Alan

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published

2013

Language

EN

ISBN

9780691133829

Category

history

Subjects

Mathematics, Engineering, Fiction

Rating

4.06 / 5 (29 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14