結び目をつけた紐を計算に用いたところからスーパーコンピュータに至るまで、電子計算機の進展と特質を概括します。計算技術の歩みを線的になぞっていく一般的な歴史の問題点を指摘し、計算、自動制御、情報管理、コミュニケーションという4つの視座をもとに検討します。情報化時代と言われる今日の発展をもたらした歴史的なできごと、さまざまな計算器具、これらの進展に寄与した人々についての知見を整理し、ユーザーのニーズという観点からの再解釈を試みます。
 

• Describes central events in the history of computing
• Offers new insights into how technologies converged to create the 'information age'
• Examines received perceptions about defining features of the modern computer
• Presents a view on the future of history of computing

    
This lively Very Short Introduction reviews the central events, machines, and people that feature in established accounts of the history of computing, critically examining received perceptions and providing a fresh look at the nature and development of the modern electronic computer.
    
The book begins by discussing a widely accepted linear narrative of the history of computing, centred around innovatory highlights that start with the use of knotted cords to aid calculation, all the way to the supercomputers of the present day. It discusses the problems and simplifications present in such a narrative, and shows that when we instead think of the development of computers to be based upon responses to the needs of users, we can identify four distinct historical threads: calculation, automatic computing, information management, and communication. These threads are examined individually, tracing their paths and the convergences of related technologies into what has come to be called 'the information age'.