1Hi, it's Doug.
2A friend of mine knows someone who works at a computer company,
3and they gave me this.
4Can you guess what it is?
5It's part of a computer chip or processor.
6It's kind of like the brain inside of a computer.
7It's the part that helps the computer do work and remember things.
8And under a microscope, this looks beautiful.
9Check it out.
10Doesn't it look like a picture of a colorful city taken from way up in the sky?
11Any computer you use at school or at home has at least one or two of these things inside of it.
12Someone named Josie has a question about computers.
13Let's give Josie a call now.
14Hi, Doug.
15Hi, Josie.
16I have a question for you.
17What were the first computers like?
18That's a great question.
19And here's the answer.
20Now, this probably isn't the type of answer you were thinking of.
21But believe it or not, the very first computers were actually people.
22For hundreds of years, people who computed or solved complicated math problems were called computers.
23That's what the word used to mean. It was a person's job.
24These human computers did everything from figuring out how many engines a plane needed to fly
25to getting rockets into space, like Katherine Johnson did.
26Her math computing skills helped land the first astronaut on the moon.
27And the story of her life is featured in the movie Hidden Figures,
28which is a great movie.
29Definitely check it out if you haven't already seen it.
30Okay, but I know that wondering about what the first computers were like,
31you're probably most curious not about human computers
32but about the type of computers that we use to play games, do schoolwork, or watch videos on.
33What were those first computers like?
34Before I say anything more, I'm curious...
35what do you think the world's first computers were like?
36Have you ever had to do a really hard math problem,
37like maybe a word problem with a lot of steps?
38If you did, you probably know that some problems are really complicated
39and take a long time to solve without help.
40And the same goes for these human computers.
41Even though they were really good at math,
42some problems were just too long or too difficult for them to easily solve on their own.
43So scientists wondered:
44could they invent a machine that could help human computers solve math problems?
45After hundreds of years of trying,
46inventors finally came up with these:
47some of the very first electronic computers.
48They didn't have screens like our computers.
49They didn't really have keyboards.
50And they were big.
51I mean, really big.
52Like this one.
53This is the ENIAC, one of the first computers ever invented.
54It was so huge that it took up an entire room.
55And it weighed a lot too: nearly 30 tons.
56That's about the same weight as 60 grown polar bears.
57These first computers weren't only huge; they were expensive.
58So expensive that only large businesses or universities could afford to buy one.
59And they weren't all that fun either.
60Computers like ENIAC were actually just giant calculators
61that helped people solve really complicated math problems.
62So you couldn't video chat with friends on them.
63You couldn't watch videos on them.
64You couldn't even take them home to play games on.
65All these computers could do was math.
66But then, computers like these came along.
67Computers like the Apple II were called home computers
68because they were small and they were a lot cheaper.
69Eventually, cheap enough for some families, not just businesses, to buy and use in their homes.
70But even though these new home computers had screens and keyboards
71just like the computers we use today,
72they weren't quite the same.
73Like, take a look at this game.
74This is Zork I, one of the first-ever computer games.
75Notice anything different from the games we play now?
76See how there are no pictures?
77That's because some of the first games didn't have any graphics or pictures.
78They just had words.
79Playing a game was kind of like reading a story.
80To tell a character what to do, players would type in words like...
81"pick up treasure" or "throw rock."
82And then new words would appear, telling you what happened next.
83Now, games like Zork I may not look like that much fun to you,
84but they were new and exciting back then.
85And kids loved them.
86And adults were excited about these new computers too,
87but for a different reason.
88See, before home computers, people did a lot of writing.
89They'd write reports for work and school.
90They'd write letters to their friends.
91And they had to do it all with a pen and paper
92or on a machine called a typewriter.
93That could take a long time.
94And if you messed up, you might have to start all over.
95But see this button?
96To people who bought the first home computers, this button seemed like magic.
97Now, you didn't need to use an eraser
98or have to throw your page away and start all over.
99If you messed up, you could just hit the button, and poof...
100your mistakes would disappear.
101Each year, these home computers became more and more popular.
102And they got better too.
103Since the time of the Apple II,
104computers have gotten smarter, and easier to carry,
105and more useful than they'd ever been before.
106In fact, one of the biggest advances of our time
107is that we now have computers that fit in our pockets.
108You might think of smartphones as just smartphones.
109But they're actually computers with a touchscreen on them
110that are small enough to fit in your pocket.
111So, in summary, electronic computers were invented to help solve complicated math problems.
112But since then, they've become so much more.
113From giant computers as big as a room to home computers that could fit in your house,
114computers have become an invention that we rely on every day, for fun., for school,
115And for talking with our friends.
116That's all for this week's question.
117Thanks, Josie, for asking it!