The Cold War and Consumerism: Crash Course Computer Science #24

Summary

本视频回顾了1940年代中期至1970年代中期的计算机科学发展史，这是个人电脑、全球互联网、自动驾驶汽车和虚拟现实等技术萌芽的时期。视频特别关注了冷战、太空竞赛以及全球化和消费主义的兴起对计算机科学的影响。在冷战期间，美国和苏联的紧张关系促使政府大量投资于科学和工程，特别是计算机领域，推动了ENIAC、EDVAC、Atlas和Whirlwind等大型计算项目的发展。1950年代，随着Univac 1等商业成功计算机的出现，计算机开始商业化。此外，日本在半导体和电子行业的崛起，以及美国在太空竞赛中的投资，如阿波罗计划中的阿波罗导航计算机，都极大地推动了集成电路技术的发展。到了1970年代，随着太空竞赛和冷战的降温，日本在电子计算器等消费电子产品领域取得了领先地位，同时，家庭计算机和游戏机的出现标志着个人电脑时代的开始。视频强调了政府和消费者在推动计算机科学快速发展中的双重作用。

Takeaways

• 📚 20世纪中叶至70年代中期是计算机科学形成的关键时期，这一时期出现了编程语言、编译器、算法、集成电路、软盘、操作系统等技术。
• 🌐 冷战、太空竞赛和全球化的兴起对计算机科学的发展产生了重要影响，特别是在政府对科学和工程的大量投资推动下。
• 💰 政府资金的注入使得像ENIAC、EDVAC、Atlas和Whirlwind这样的大型计算项目得以实施，这些项目在商业领域是不可能单独完成的。
• 🚀 早期的商业成功案例之一是UNIVAC I，这是第一个商业上成功的计算机模型，超过40台被建造，主要服务于政府机构和大型公司。
• 📊 计算机不仅能增强人类的体力，还能增强智力，这一点在Vannevar Bush提出的Memex概念中得到了体现。
• 🏆 美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的成立为美国的科学研究提供了联邦资金支持，这也是美国在技术领域保持领导地位的一个重要原因。
• 📻 50年代，消费者开始购买晶体管驱动的小工具，尤其是晶体管收音机，它小巧、耐用、便携，引领了消费电子的潮流。
• 🌌 日本通过引进Bell Labs的晶体管技术，迅速发展了自己的半导体和电子工业，并很快占据了美国市场的一半。
• ☄️ 苏联在太空竞赛中领先，发射了世界上第一颗卫星Sputnik 1，并使尤里·加加林成为第一个进入太空的人类。
• 🌕 美国的阿波罗计划是人类历史上的一个巨大挑战，它不仅推动了集成电路的发展，还促进了超级计算机的诞生。
• 📉 70年代，随着冷战和太空竞赛的降温，美国的半导体行业面临挑战，许多公司开始缩小规模、整合或失败，而日本公司则在消费电子领域占据了主导地位。
• 🏡 个人电脑和家庭游戏机的出现标志着家用计算设备的兴起，这是计算机科学进入家庭并普及的开始。

Q & A

在20世纪中叶，哪个时期被认为是计算机发展的关键时期？

20世纪中叶的关键时期是从1940年代中期到1970年代中期，这一时期出现了许多重要的计算机技术和概念，为个人计算机、全球互联网、自动驾驶汽车和虚拟现实等技术奠定了基础。

冷战时期，美国和苏联之间的紧张关系如何影响计算机科学的发展？

冷战时期，美国和苏联作为两个超级大国，其紧张关系导致了大规模的政府开支投入在科学和工程上，计算机科学因此获得了大量资金支持，推动了诸如ENIAC、EDVAC、Atlas和Whirlwind等雄心勃勃的计算项目的发展。

第一台商业上成功的计算机是由谁开发的？

第一台商业上成功的计算机是Univac 1，由Eckert和Buckley开发。

在1952年美国总统选举期间，Univac计算机是如何被使用的？

在1952年美国总统选举期间，一台为美国原子能委员会建造的Univac计算机被CBS用来预测选举结果。计算机在只有1%的投票结果出来时，就正确预测了艾森豪威尔的压倒性胜利。

Vannevar Bush在1945年发表的文章中设想的计算设备叫什么名字？

Vannevar Bush在1945年发表的文章中设想的计算设备叫做Memex。

日本政府是如何进入半导体和电子行业的？

日本政府在1952年从贝尔实验室获得了晶体管的权利许可，这帮助启动了日本的半导体和电子行业。

苏联在1957年发射了什么，成为世界上第一颗人造卫星？

苏联在1957年发射了世界上第一颗人造卫星，名为Sputnik 1。

阿波罗计划中使用的阿波罗导航计算机有哪些显著的技术要求？

阿波罗导航计算机的三个显著技术要求是：首先，计算机必须快速；其次，它必须小而轻，因为宇宙飞船内空间有限，每一盎司的重量都很宝贵；最后，它必须非常非常可靠，因为在宇宙飞船中存在大量振动、辐射和温度变化。

为什么说阿波罗导航计算机推动了集成电路的发展和采用？

阿波罗导航计算机是第一台使用集成电路的计算机，这是一个巨大的技术范式转变。尽管阿波罗计划是一个低产量产品，但军事应用，特别是民兵和北极星核导弹系统，使得集成电路能够大规模生产。

1970年代，美国半导体行业的衰退主要原因是什么？

1970年代，美国半导体行业的衰退主要是因为冷战和太空竞赛的结束导致之前有利可图的国防合同开始减少，同时，消费者电子和计算机组件的商品化使得美国公司难以与日本等国家的竞争对手抗衡。

1970年代，日本公司在哪个领域取得了显著的成功？

1970年代，日本公司在手持电子计算器领域取得了显著的成功，他们利用集成电路制造出了小型且便宜的计算器，这些计算器取代了昂贵的桌面式加法机。

为什么说1970年代是计算机发展的一个新时代？

1970年代是计算机发展的一个新时代，因为在这个时期，计算机从只有政府和大型企业才能使用的庞大机器，演变成了普通家庭也能够负担得起的设备，比如家庭计算机和家庭游戏机，这标志着计算机开始进入普通家庭，为后续的个人计算机革命奠定了基础。

Outlines

00:00

😀 计算机科学的历史回顾

在这一集节目中，Carrie Anne回顾了计算机科学的历史，从文明的曙光到20世纪40年代中期电子通用计算机的诞生。她概述了计算语言、编译器、算法、集成电路、软盘和操作系统等主题的演变，以及冷战、太空竞赛和全球化对计算机发展的影响。她特别提到二战后美国和苏联之间的紧张关系如何推动了计算机科学的进步，政府的大量资助使得ENIAC、EDVAC、Atlas和Whirlwind等大型计算项目得以开展。

05:01

🚀 阿波罗导航计算机和集成电路的革命

Carrie Anne讲述了阿波罗计划中的导航计算机的开发，以及这项任务如何促使集成电路技术的发展。她详细描述了阿波罗导航计算机必须满足的三个关键要求：速度快、小巧轻便和极高的可靠性。由于真空管和分立晶体管无法满足这些要求，NASA转向了集成电路技术。尽管集成电路最初非常昂贵，但它们的应用帮助美国在登月竞赛中战胜了苏联。同时，军事应用也加速了集成电路的量产和普及，推动了超级计算机的发展。

10:03

🌐 冷战时期计算技术的军民融合

在这段内容中，Carrie Anne讨论了冷战时期美国半导体产业的兴起，以及军事合同对该产业的推动作用。然而，这种依赖于高利润政府合同的模式也导致了美国公司在消费者市场上的竞争力下降。相比之下，日本半导体产业通过精益生产和自动化技术在消费者市场上取得了优势。她还提到，20世纪70年代，随着太空竞赛和冷战的逐渐平息，美国电子公司纷纷缩减规模或倒闭，而日本公司则在计算器、电视机和其他电子产品市场上崭露头角。

Keywords

💡计算机科学

计算机科学是研究计算机及其周围各种现象和规律的科学，它包括了从理论基础到实际应用的广泛领域。在视频中，计算机科学的发展历史和重要性是核心主题，涵盖了编程语言、算法、集成电路、软盘、操作系统等多个方面。

💡冷战

冷战是指第二次世界大战后，美国和苏联两个超级大国之间的政治和军事紧张关系。视频中提到，冷战期间的政府开支极大地推动了科学和工程的发展，包括计算机技术，如ENIAC、EDVAC等项目。

💡太空竞赛

太空竞赛是20世纪中叶美国和苏联之间的一场非武装竞赛，旨在展示各自的技术优势和国力。视频中提到，苏联发射了世界上第一颗卫星Sputnik 1，随后美国为了追赶，通过阿波罗计划成功将人类送上月球。

💡集成电路

集成电路是一种将大量微电子器件集成在一个小型芯片上的技术。视频中强调了集成电路在阿波罗导航计算机中的应用，这是计算机技术发展中的一个重大突破，它使得计算机变得更小、更轻、更可靠。

💡UNIVAC 1

UNIVAC 1是世界上第一台商业上成功的计算机，由Eckert和Mauchly开发。视频中提到，UNIVAC 1不仅卖给了政府机构和大公司，还被用于预测1952年美国总统选举的结果，这标志着计算机技术开始进入公众视野。

💡个人计算机

个人计算机是指设计用于单个用户使用的计算机。视频中提到了个人计算机的出现，这是计算机技术普及化的一个重要里程碑，它使得普通家庭也能够拥有和使用计算机。

💡全球化

全球化是指全球范围内的经济、政治、文化等方面的相互联系和依赖日益增强的过程。视频中提到，全球化的兴起与计算机技术的发展紧密相关，特别是在推动跨国公司和国际贸易方面。

💡消费主义

消费主义是一种社会和经济秩序，其中消费行为成为经济的主导动力，并且个人满足感越来越多地来自于购买和使用商品和服务。视频中提到，消费主义的兴起与计算机技术的商业化和普及化有着密切的联系。

💡阿波罗计划

阿波罗计划是美国国家航空航天局（NASA）于1961年至1972年间实施的载人登月计划。视频中提到，阿波罗计划是计算机技术发展的一个重要推动力，特别是对于集成电路和小型化计算机的需求。

💡微处理器

微处理器是一种集成电路，它将中央处理单元（CPU）的功能集成在一个芯片上。视频中提到，微处理器的发展和成本的降低使得个人计算机和家用游戏机成为可能，这是计算机技术普及化的关键因素之一。

💡超级计算机

超级计算机是指在计算速度和性能上远超普通计算机的高性能计算机。视频中提到，超级计算机的发展是由政府资助的，它们在科学研究和国防领域有着重要应用，同时也推动了计算机技术的快速发展。

Highlights

计算机科学速成课涵盖了从文明初期到20世纪40年代中期电子通用计算机诞生的计算历史。

从20世纪40年代中期到70年代中期的30年间，出现了编程语言、编译器、算法、集成电路、软盘、操作系统等。

这一时期是苹果和微软等公司存在之前，也是推特、谷歌搜索或优步出现很久之前的计算时代。

冷战、太空竞赛和全球化及消费主义的兴起对这一时期产生了重要影响。

第二次世界大战后，美国和苏联这两个超级大国之间的紧张关系导致了冷战的开始。

ENIAC、EDVAC、Atlas和Whirlwind等项目得到了政府的巨额资助。

1950年代初，尤其是埃克特和莫奇利的Univac 1，标志着计算机商业成功的开始。

Univac 1是第一个商业成功的计算机模型，总共建造了40多台。

1952年美国总统选举中，Univac 1成功预测了艾森豪威尔的压倒性胜利。

计算机能够增强人类的智力，这一点在Vannevar Bush在1945年发表的Memex概念中得到了体现。

Memex启发了后续多个变革性的系统，如Ivan Sutherland的Sketchpad和Douglas Engelbart的在线系统。

1950年代，消费者开始购买晶体管驱动的小工具，尤其是晶体管收音机。

日本政府通过从贝尔实验室获得晶体管权利，帮助启动了日本的半导体和电子工业。

苏联在1957年发射了世界上第一颗卫星Sputnik 1，随后在1961年将宇航员加加林送入太空。

阿波罗计划雇佣了约40万人，并得到了2万多所大学和公司的支持。

阿波罗制导计算机是第一台使用集成电路的计算机，标志着一个巨大的范式转变。

军事应用，尤其是民兵和北极星核导弹系统，使得集成电路成为大规模生产项目。

1970年代，随着太空竞赛和冷战的消退，之前有利可图的国防合同开始减少。

日本半导体行业通过精益利润率在1950年代和60年代开始占据主导地位。

1975年Altair 8800和1977年Atari 2600等第一批成功的家用计算机和游戏机的出现标志着家用计算的黎明。

政府和消费者是推动计算机快速发展的两大力量，政府资金在冷战期间促进了计算技术的早期采用。

Transcripts

Hi, I'm Carrie Anne and welcome to Crash Course Computer Science.

Early in this series we covered computing history from roughly the dawn of civilization,

up to the birth of electronic general purpose computers in the mid 1940s.

A lot of the material we've discussed over the past 23 episodes

like programming languages and compilers

algorithms and integrated circuits

Floppy disks and operating systems, telly types and screens

all emerged over roughly a 30-year period, from the mid 1940s up to the mid 1970s

This is the era of computing before companies like Apple and Microsoft existed

and long before anyone tweeted, Googled or Uber-d.

It was a formative period setting the stage for personal computers,

worldwide web, self-driving cars virtual reality, and many other topics

we'll get to in the second half of this series.

Today we're going to step back from circuits and algorithms and review this influential period.

We'll pay special attention to the historical backdrop of the cold war, the space race and the rise of globalization and consumerism.

Pretty much immediately after World War II concluded in 1945,

there was tension between the world's two new superpowers the United States and the USSR

The Cold War had begun and with it, massive government spending on science and engineering.

Computing which had already demonstrated its value in wartime efforts like the Manhattan Project

and code breaking Nazi communications,

was lavished with government funding. They enabled huge ambitious computing projects to be undertaken,

like ENIAC, EDVAC, Atlas and Whirlwind all mentioned in previous episodes.

This spurred rapid advances that simply weren't possible in the commercial sector alone,

where projects were generally expected to recoup development costs through sales.

This began to change in the early 1950s, especially with Eckert and Buckley's Univac 1,

the first commercially successful computer.

Unlike any Echo Atlas, this wasn't just one single computer.

It was a model of computers, in total more than 40 were built.

Most of these Univacs went to government offices or large companies.

Which was part of the growing military industrial complex in the United States, with pockets deep enough to afford the cutting edge.

Famously a Univac one built for the U.S atomic energy commission was used by CBS to predict the results of

the 1952 U.S. presidential election. With just 1% of the vote the computer correctly predicted an Eisenhower landslide while pundits favored Stevenson.

It was a media event that helped propel computing to the forefront of the public's imagination

Computing was unlike machines of the past, which generally augmented human physical abilities.

Trucks allowed us to carry more automatic looms whoa faster

Machine tools were more precise and so on for a bunch of contraptions that typify the industrial revolution.

But computers on the other hand could augment human intellect.

This potential wasn't lost on Vannevar Bush, who in 1945 published an article

on a hypothetical computing device he envisioned called the Memex.

This was a device in which an individual stores all his books, records and communications

and which is mechanized, so it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility

It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

He also predicted that wholly new forms of encyclopedia will appear,

ready-made, with a mesh of associative trails running through them. Sound familiar?

Memex directly inspired several subsequent game-changing systems,

like Ivan Sutherland Sketchpad, which we discussed last episode,

and Dough Engelbart's online system, which we will cover soon.

Vannevar Bush was the head of the U.S. office of Scientific Research and Development,

which was responsible for funding and coordinating scientific research during World War Two.

With the Cold War brewing, Bush lobbied for a creation of a peace time equivalent,

the National Science Foundation, formed in 1950.

To this day the NSF provides federal funding to support scientific research in the United States.

And it is a major reason the U.S. has continued to be a leader in the technology sector.

It was also in the 1950s that consumers started to buy transistor powered gadgets,

notable among them was the transistor radio, which was small, durable and battery-powered.

And it was portable, unlike the vacuum tube based radio sets from the 1940s and before.

It was a runaway success, the furby or iphone of its day.

The Japanese government looking for industrial opportunities, to bolster their post-war economy,

soon got in on the action. Licensing the rights to Transistors from Bell Labs in 1952.

Helping launch the Japanese semiconductor and electronics industry.

In 1955, the first Sony product was released:

The TR-55 Transistor Radio. Concentrating on quality and price,

Japanese companies captured half of the U.S. Market for portable radios in just five years.

This planted the first seeds of a major industrial rivalry in the decades to come.

In 1953, there were only around 100 computers on the entire planet

and at this point, the USSR was only a few years behind the West in computing technology,

completing their first programmable electronic computer in 1950.

But the Soviets were way ahead in the burgeoning space race. Let's go to the thought-bubble.

The Soviets launched the world's first satellite into orbit, Sputnik one,

in 1957 and a few years later in 1961.

Soviet Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

This didn't sit well with the American public

and prompted President Kennedy, a month after Gagarin's mission,

to encourage the nation to land a man on the moon within the decade. And it was expensive!

Nasa's budget grew almost tenfold, peaking in 1966 at roughly 4.5 percent of the u.s. Federal budget today

It's around half a percent

Nasa used this funding to tackle a huge array of enormous challenges this culminated in the apollo program

Which is peak employed roughly?

400,000 people further supported by over 20,000 universities and companies one of these huge challenges was navigating in space

Nasa needed a computer to process complex trajectories and issue Guidance commands to the spacecraft for this they built the apollo guidance computer

There were three significant requirements first the computer had to be fast no surprise there second it has to be small and lightweight

there's not a lot of room in a spacecraft and every ounce is precious when you're flying a quarter million miles to the moon and

Finally it had to be really really ridiculously reliable

This is super important in a spacecraft where there's lots of vibration radiation and temperature change

And there's no running to best buy it something breaks the technology of the era of vacuum Tubes and discrete transistors

Just weren't up to the task so Nasa turned to a brand-new technology integrated circuits

Which we discussed a few episodes ago the apollo guidance computer was the first computer to use them a huge paradigm shift

Nasa was also the only place that could afford them initially each chip cost around $50 and the guidance computer needed thousands of them

But by paying that price the Americans were able to beat the soviets to the moon

Thanks, thought-bubble although the apollo Guidance computer is credited with spurring the development and adoption of integrated circuits

It was a low volume product there are only 17 apollo missions after all it was actually military applications

Especially the minuteman and polaris nuclear missile systems that allowed integrated circuits to become a mass-produced

Item this rapid Advancement was further accelerated by the u.s.

Building and buying huge powerful computers often called supercomputers because they were frequently 10 times faster than any other computer on the planet

Upon their release but these machines built by companies Like CDC cray

And Ibm were also super in cost and pretty much only governments could afford to buy them in the us these machines went to government

Agencies like the NSA and government research labs like Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National laboratories initially the u.s.

semiconductor industry boomed buoyed by High profit government contracts

However this meant that most us companies overlooked the consumer market where profit Margins were small the Japanese

Semiconductor industry came to dominate this niche by having to operate with lean profit margins in the 1950s and 60s

the Japanese had invested heavily in manufacturing capacity to achieve economies of scale in

Research to improve quality and Yields and in automation to keep manufacturing costs low in the 1970s with the space Race and cold war subsiding

previously juicy defense contracts began to dry up and

Consumer conductor and electronics companies found it harder to compete it didn't help the many computing components had been commoditized

Be around with Dram

So why buy expensive intel memory when you could buy the same chip for less from Hitachi?

Throughout the 1970s us companies began to downsize consolidate or outright fail intel had to lay off a third of its Workforce in

1974 and even the storied Fairchild semiconductor was acquired in

1979 after near bankruptcy to survive many of these companies began to outsource their manufacturing in a bid to reduce costs

Intel weave drew from its main product category memory Ics and decided to refocus on processes

Which ultimately saved the company this low and us?

electronics industry allowed Japanese companies like Sharp and Casio to dominate the Breakout computing product of the

1970s Handheld electronic calculators by using integrated circuits these could be made small and cheap they replaced

Expensive desktop adding machines you find in offices

For most people it was the first time they didn't have to do math on paper, or use a slide rule

They were an instant hit selling by the millions

This server drove down the cost of integrated circuits and led to the development and widespread use of micro processors like the intel

4004 we've discussed previously

This chip was built by intel in 1971 at the request of Japanese calculator company busy calm soon

Japanese electronics were everywhere from televisions of VcRs to digital wristwatches and Walkmans the availability of inexpensive

microprocessor Spawned in Highly new Products like video arcades the world got pong in 1972 and Breakout in

1976 as cost continued to plummet soon it became possible for regular people to afford computing devices during this time

we see the emergence of the first successful home computers like the

1975 Altair 8800 and also the first home gaming consoles like the Atari 2600 in

1977 home now, I repeat that home that seems like a small thing today

But this was the dawn of a whole new era in computing in just three decades computers have evolved from machines where you could literally?

Walk inside of the cPU assuming you had government clearance to the point where a child could play with a handheld toy

Containing a microprocessor many times faster, critically this dramatic evolution would have been but without two powerful forces at play

governments and consumers

government funding like the United States provided during the cold war

enabled early adoption of many nascent computing technologies this funding helped flow entire

Industries relate into computing long enough for the technology to mature and become commercially feasible then businesses and ultimately consumers

Provided the demand to take it mainstream the cold war may be over, but this relationship continues today

Governments are still funding science research intelligence agencies are still buying supercomputers humans are still being launched into space

And you're still buying TVs xboxes playstations laptops and smartphones and for these reasons

Computing continues to Advance a lightning pace. I'll see you next week

crash course computer science is produced in association with PBS digital studios

At their channel you can check out a playlist of shows like Physics Goldie flicks

And PBs space time this episode was filmed at the Chad and stacey ever thought studio in Indianapolis, Indiana

And it was made with the help of all these nice people and our wonderful graphic scene thought cafe

That's where we're going to have to halt and catch fire. See you next week

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