Description
My presentation surveys how electronic computers were presented to, and interpreted by, non-specialist audiences, from their origins in the 1940s to the consolidation of mass public use in the 1990s. I focus particularly on how a small set of understandings, assumptions and explanatory approaches became clichés of the form, circulating and recirculating through educational and general-interest literature. Some clichés had origins in wider public debates, such as the longstanding fear of unemployment and deskilling; others were promoted by the industry itself, notably the GIGO (“garbage in, garbage out”) principle which positioned the technology as a neutral instrument. Some were short-lived, such as Leon Bagrit’s “automation” crusade of the 1960s, whereas some persisted for half a century, such as the remorseless tendency to explain binary arithmetic to all audiences for all purposes. I will consider how much of this cliché reproduction was due to conscious shared aims, and how much to simple convention, and will also offer the beginnings of an attempt to evaluate its influence, via policy determinations, on real-world change.James Sumner is Lecturer in History of Technology at the University of Manchester. His research in the history of computing usually focuses on British cultural contexts, and has included work on the early promotional rhetoric of British computer manufacturers and the assimilation of the 1980s IBM PC-compatible platform. He has a strong interest in engaging with public audiences about historical research (for various values of “public”), and is currently involved in co-supervising a project with colleagues at the Museum of Science and Industry on the museum presentation of historic sites.
| Period | 14 May 2015 |
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| Held at | The University of Warwick, United Kingdom |