As more and more people come to depend
on computing technology in their daily lives, computer science must also consider the study of social issues of
the technologies that it produces.
There is a common misconception that computer science is nothing more than the study of computer hardware
and programming. It should be clear to you now that computer science is much more than simply writing
programs. It includes the study of computer hardware, computer languages, operating systems, networking,
databases, and the social consequences of computing. In order to be effective, a computer scientist must understand
and master each of these areas. Further, computer science is a young discipline that is still rapidly evolving
since its beginnings in the 1940s. In the next section we will briefly explore the history of computing from both
a hardware and software perspective.
COMPUTING HISTORY
Though computer science is a relatively young field that only began in earnest in the 1940s, interest in
computing and computing devices started much earlier. The abacus, a simple counting device invented
in Babylonia in the fourth century BC, is considered by many to be the first computing device.
In 1614 the Scottish lord John Napier, inventor of logarithms, invented a calculating device consisting of
a series of rods (often called ???bones???) that reduced the complex process of multiplication and division into the
relatively simple tasks of addition and subtraction.
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