The year was 1958, I just returned from an industry job to graduate school. There were two types of computers competing for attention at that time. There was the analog computer type which uses high gain feedback amplifier to perform integration. This makes simulating dynamic models obeying differential equations quite easy. On the other hand, digital computers, such as the IBM 650 or later the IBM 704 at that time are still quite primitive with limited computer memory and had to carry out integration using difference equations and numerical analysis to do step-by-step propagation of the dynamic model. Job title such as IT professionals have not been established. But at Harvard where we had one Ph.D person full time maintaining and helping people using analog computers. Later on, the first word processor by Wang Laboratories (which carried a serial number 002) was purchased and used in our lab. An Wang was one of the 400 richest person in the US. Too bad he died early and his descendant did not carry on his entrepreneurships.
Integrated circuits and chips were not invented until much later which greatly expanded the capabilities of digital computation. Soon analog devices and computation were replaced.
The INTERNET did not exist and communications among the masses were cumbersome.
Wireless mobile phone, Wikipedia, and Google did not exist. Information entail costs. We needed libraries and where Encyclopedia Britannica dominates (which is now totally on-line since 2010). I still remember a Bell Telephone scientist during the late 20th century telling me that I need to watch this start up named Google since it is doing something interesting
Of course, more than half a century later since the late ‘50s, the “World is FLAT” and completely DIGITAL. Journals such as the Digital Transformation and Society gave birth and claim its rightful place in the publication world. What a half century! What will the next 50 years bring? You cannot imagine!
Yu-Chi Ho
Professor Emeritus Harvard University
Member U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chinese Academy of Engineering
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