THE EMERGENCE OF COMPUTERS : APPLICATION , AND IMPACT
A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW
- Dr. Sushim Dubey -
In the history of human civilization twentieth century may be called as the century of inventions. Among the various inventions, computer is the most important as other inventions provide their services in limited areas while the service and use of computers have gradually spread over all walks of life. Now its frequent use is seen from medical field to the transport system and from space technology to deep mine and marine engineering
What is a computer ? The simple answer is “A machine that can accept data, process it according to a stored program of instructions and then give the result “ But this seems a very simple definition. To elaborate let us consider the characteristics of the computer . It could be given in three phrases- “saving time”, “fast calculation” and “accuracy in results”. These are the qualities which enable the computer to replace manual labour. Now to understand the whole computer system (Here “System” word is added) it consists of four essential constituents : (1)-The Hardware (2) The Operating System (3) The Application programme (4) The Users.
The first constituent ‘The Hardware’, as the term denotes, is the physical equipment which includes - the monitor, printer, CPU, keyboard etc. Since the Hardware is the machine so to talk with it and give it commands for the job, an operating system is required. An operating system is a program which acts as interface between a user of a computer and hardware. Thus the purpose of an operating system is to provide an environment in which a user may execute programs. The primary goal of an operating system is thus to make the computer convenient to use and its secondary goal is to use the computer hardware (machine) efficiently.
The third constituent application program is the set of instructions for the particular task like the “Railway Reservation System”, “Banking System” etc. These application programs are designed to provide aid in a certain and definite task. Now to say use these programs and work on the computer are the fourth constituents - ‘the user’.
The above description presents a small introduction about the computer system. With this now, we may take our main point - “What is the advantage of computer?“ And by discussing this our endeavor would be to draw out the limit and scope of computer’s applications. Before analyzing the advantage of computer let us first query about use of the computer. A common man seeks ‘ease in life’ which computer provides successfully. Computers make it possible by doing longest work only in few seconds (which manually might have taken longer time) especially arithmetical and numerical calculations. So less time, and efficient work with accuracy is the prominent quality of the computer system. In fact these are the qualities which man has been seeking and developing in himself for centuries. Historically also, Man has become a successful survivor among the living being only because of his ability to use his atmosphere/equipment efficiently over the other living partners . These qualities indicate the creative power of man. This creative power is lying with in the personality of the man. This creative power is unlimited as Tagor said at one place; it (personality) has the paradox in that it is more than itself. The same thing could be said about computer also, its capabilities and abilities are touching and seeking new boundaries.
Aim of Computer
‘What impact computer will make in future life? “ . Or putting the point in this way, “up to what extent the computer technology will be used”?
Here one example is taken from Computer For Everybody about the medical field - “Computer has been used to keep track of a diabetic child’s blood and urine glucose levels. Computer can also plot trends that indicate whether current insulin dosage levels are appropriate and warn if a pattern indicates a problem”. These examples show the potentiality of computers. Another instance of United Kingdom’s Prof. “CYBORG” is equally interesting. He implanted a computer silicon chip in his hand and made its connection with brain through the hands nerve cells. The silicon chip was capable of switching on power in a room but for this instruction it was made dependent upon the mind’s instruction. So by giving a mental command the Prof. was able to switch the light on / off in the room.
These examples well depict the potential and scope of computers use in forthcoming time. If the above argument of Prof CYBORG is enlarged then with the help of various silicon chips, man in this century would be in the stage of more power and more potential and could move objects by thinking only. Same could be said about the medical field also. When with the progress of medical technology man’s physiology and internal processes are fully known then feeding all the information in a computer it would be possible to check and monitor the health from time to time . When the cause of the infection or illness etc. occurs then the associated computer system would promptly warn and activate like the second immune system for curing the problem. In this way man’s longitivity would be ensured.
In association with providing the longitivity computer could perhaps provide the life after death. This may seem as an exaggerated statement because Gita (II. 27) says - ‘Jatasya hi dhruvo niriturdhruvani jannia mratasya cha’ , means who takes birth definitely goes to death and decay. Nevertheless here body decay is not challenged and longitivity is not concerned with body but the argument presented is in favour of mind or memory. Let me elaborate the point. The argument is put forth by computer scientists that the human identity is his memory. By the memory person identifies himself as the man. Again by the memory man recognizes the world around him. Memory is somewhat a per acquires the knowledge or memory is what a person experiences throughout his life. If by some causes memory is lost, like in malarial disease and its impact on brain or the sclerosis disease by which U.S.A... Former President George W. Bush suffering with (in this disease gradually memory is lost), then life of such person loses meaning as he neither recognizes himself nor the society. So here comes the problem for the medical scientist to fight against such disease and make the memory untempered and preserved. This problem has also presented some area for thinking and research to computer scientists They have focused their attention over the solution but in a different way. These lines of argument could be given in two ways:
(1). Suppose a kind of data storage media is developed and fixed with the person (same as Black Box of Aeroplane recording all events continuously) then all the mental experiences etc. would be recorded and if this process continues till the death of the person then all the events etc. would be preserved in that fitted storage media. Now if we admit the potential of genetic technology then using the method of cloning a similar reproduction of that man can be developed. This cloned man would be similar physically also in shape and colour etc. Now what is lacking in this cloned man is the experiences or memory of its source man (of whom it has been made clone). If this memory which has been stored and preserved in storage media is somehow associated with the new reproduced man then the person can continue his life even after death. The above arguments seem much hypothetical in nature. It could also be asserted that these points would remain in the field of scientific fiction until Genetic technology and Computer technology both develop to a very advanced level.
(2) Second form of the argument is based on the possibility of ‘Brain Mapping’. The idea behind brain mapping is of scanner, i.e. the working of scanner. A computer scanner scans paper, picture etc. and then stores that picture; paper etc. in computer hard disk or storage media. Similarly in brain mapping technology, it is desired that at certain time the whole brain information could be scanned and copied to the storage media. Somehow if this becomes possible then the person would be saved in a hard disk same as the other computer programs. Computer’s scientists are doing-their researches in this direction.
Both the above arguments may seem the same but there is difference between them. Brain mapping is different from the first argument. First argument seeks a kind of storage media which is of continuous nature. It intends to record the events, happening all the times continuously while the brain mapping technology intends to scan the mind at any time and store all scanned information. So it does not require to fit a storage media all the time.
Computer Vs Man
Man has invented computer with the aim of fast calculation. Further this aim was extended as fast calculation with accurate and efficient service. Thus with t advancement of technology, objective and ideal for the computer scientist ha to make the computer as good as man, means, ‘can computer be made as smart and intelligent as man ?‘. A further question is,’ if this could ever be achieved ? Perhaps ‘yes’ . This positive answer makes the computer scientist to fill the gap between computer and man’s ability. But here some points remain for consideration. These points are related with the man’s characteristic qualities. These qualities are prudence, wisdom, justice, compassion, mercifulness etc. Thus the question is how the computer would acquire these qualities? Because computer works under the set of instructions and in this way it is a problem solving machine. What problem it is asked to solve it works for that only according to the set of instruction or information fed.
Scientists can increase the storage power of computer by making it possible to store whole library in a small computer or enhancing the calculating power up to its operations per second by designing ‘Param’ . But in either of the above cases computer’s ability will be confined to the instructions already fed in it. It can not go ahead to carry any decision whatsoever. However Robots have been designed and used in Japan, U.S.A. and other countries for doing various jobs but there too robots are used only with regard to the definite jobs. In this way it could be said that prudence, wisdom etc. do not seem possible to cultivate by the computer itself.
Computer Operating System and Man’s Behaviors
Computer operating system and man’s behaviors can also be compared to some extent. As we have seen in this paper’s previous section, the computer operat ing system is a program which acts as interface between hardware and computer user. Again by operating system and its instruction computer’s internal machine etc. works and functions. Thus the computer machine understands only a definite set of instructions and if some unknown instructions is given to it then soon it gives a message like
A: > Bad command or file name
This message is very often seen by computer users, which indicates computer’s failure to go ahead with the unknown instructions. Same thing is also found in human behaviors. Man also acts according to the instructions or impressions he has in his mind. Only by these instruction or sanskars man acquires some kind of social status etc. and again under guidance of these sanskar man acts in social interpersonal sphere. Here also when man faces some unknown situation then for some time he remains stand-still because his mind cannot produce a sudden solution for the situation. But when man becomes successful in coming out with the effective solution and overcomes the situation then he feels satisfied and if failing to do the above confusion and despair prevail over him. Perhaps behind the various social evils, the above reason could be found which also leads some time to mental and social disorders. Such circumstances indicate the major failure of the human system. Then here comes the responsibility for the society and various social, religious institutions to maintain such a social order where social (software) system can work effectively and comprehensively. Then can only of both man and society welfare can be assured.
Notes and References
1. Dictionary of Computer, V.K. .Jain, Academic Publisher, New Delhi, 1992,
p.69.
2. Operating System Concepts, James L. Peterson, Abraham Silberschatz, Sec. Edition, Wesley Pub. Company. Singapore, 1985, p.1.
3. Personality, Rabindra Nath Tagore, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1952 p. 38.
4. In fact use of computer in daily life is still not very much popular in our country. With sixty five percent literacy and only. one percent English knowing people, the adoption arid frequent use of computer is still to gain pace. But on the other hand Indi&has also emerged as top in world regarding software development and production.
5. Computer for Everybody, J. Wills and. Miller, Dilithium Press, U.S.A.,
1984, p. 104.
6. Cyborgis the name given to computer man, Pro. Kelvan Varick is first to become of this category & Cybernetics has emerged as the branch where computer & animal / human relation/impact is studied
7. ‘Param’- the first indigenous Super Computer of India.
8. DOS (Microsoft, USA) and other operating Systems, System Software produces this kind of message showing their failure to understand the command or operation.
Sushim Dubey
Department of P.G. Studies & Research in Philosophy,
Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur
Address for Correspondence
H.No. 826, Bai Ka Bagicha,
Ghamapur,
Jabalpur M.P Pin- 482001
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