Computers are

Technology, Time, and Information

Technology isn’t anything but a reflection of the human inability to do some things.

Time is usually the limit—and also the path—but I meant it as a barrier, without technology we could not do things that would usually take us time and energy, from sending an email to sending a short message.

Of course, there are situations where sending a message in person changes everything. It also reduces the chances of deception, but it replaces a poor bandwidth—one that these days isn’t enough for our bodies to be satisfied, catching up with every movement our body makes to communicate.

So technology, again, involves many means: from actual building blocks, guns, books, instruments, and calculators—by which I mean computers.

I may be naïve to think that computers were created at all in constrast counting and mathematics were concepts that took a lot of time for humanity to develop. They also take a lot of our brain capacity, so we had to develop signs, tools, and eventually computers to perform these operations faster. This is information, nonetheless. Computers then became the solution—hence, the tool—to process and transport information in a non-natural way, because humans tend to modify the environment to their desires. Information, at least today, is how we interpret the world around us, which is made of the same things—but that’s a topic for other books.

The Beginning

Computers don’t seem to grow by themselves—at least not yet—so they are tools we build. They come with two main components: the CPU and the memory. Although the CPU also contains a small amount of memory inside it, additional dedicated resources that are needed to remember and store information. That’s why memory is so important, and basically, it’s what everything is about anyway.

Time also plays an important role in how a CPU functions. Without time—and specifically without clock crystals—CPUs wouldn’t be able to function, to run, or to perform operations. That’s the basis of what a CPU does: it moves information all the time, basically doing math and logic. This is probably logic we already perform in the world, but at a simpler and more fundamental level—not as advanced as controlling traffic, though that’s a good analogy.

We’re trying to be fundamental here. Computers figure out the most repetitive operations our minds perform and convert them into machinery and tools that harvest memory (computer memory), so programs can exist. These programs are compilations of instructions, which is (again) information—but different from a book that is meant to be read (at least in principle). These words (programs) are actually able to modify and/or create information (more words).

All of this happens at speeds that seem to be limited only by physical constants, like the speed of light—how fast information can travel and how fast it can be accessed. Since this is a classification exercise in a way, the more information you put in the same place, the harder it becomes to access it due to physical limitations. It’s good to note that bridges suffer from related problems due usage but don’t fall down because they are big, and maintenance can be performed—or they are eventually replaced.

With computers and their bridges, we’re crossing limits of the things we can’t see with the human eye. All of this is happening in spaces so small that even more constraints and unknowns appear. Yet here is humanity, trying to build CPUs and memory smaller every day so we can keep piling information into the so-called cloud—which is just a bunch of computers living in the same place, connected by wires that transport light and electricity, dealing with information through programs.

These programs are written by humans—for now—but they may eventually help humans write faster and think more, which is what we want, I think, anyway.

So What Are We Doing With Computers These Days?

I’m afraid to say: almost anything.

Humanity has been able to build and continue physically building larger and larger structures—houses, bridges (again), ships, cars, rockets—and, well, humanoid-like structures called robots. These can lift boxes and dance, shadowing their creators’ movements, and eventually becoming more aware of their surroundings. Maybe one day we’ll beat nature and create humans made of different machinery—but this isn’t a novel, so that’s for another kind of book.

What’s next from here? Well, it’s up to you, I think. Computers are becoming more popular every day, and that comes with the cost of not even knowing what they are—or what they exist for—like reading this text.